


By Blood Through Blood

by Rinichey



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Action, Animal Instincts, Blood, Character Death, Enemies to Lovers, Fun Shenanigans, In a sense, Interspecies Romance, M/M, Romance, mentions of sex but never detailed, mermaid au, transformations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:21:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 28,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24563032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinichey/pseuds/Rinichey
Summary: (This is more of a very detailed storyboard than a fully-fledged story of my mermaid au.)It's another hot summer on the Parnassus, one of the world's last surviving ships carrying the remains of humanity from the Great Tsunami. Galo, the ever-eager Ocean Rescue worker he is, is unsurprisingly excited to hear that the ship has brought aboard a new injured mer. One look at their newest recruit and Galo already knows that he will be the biggest and brightest star of his shows. He just has to get him to warm up first.
Relationships: Gueira/Meis (Promare), Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 8
Kudos: 32





	By Blood Through Blood

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone,
> 
> I hope you are all keeping safe during these times. 
> 
> I was hoping to get this out before the end of mermay but that didn't happen obviously. Still, I'm a sucker for mermaid aus and I wanted to at least put out a story, but I know me. If I tried writing this it'd easily be 300+ pages and I dont' know if we'd get to the end. So we're doing things a bit different this time; this is my storyboard, or, what I usually use to outline my stories. It's got all you need to understand the world before jumping into the paraphrased (and I say that lightly) story I would have liked to tell. 
> 
> I know it's not a traditional story, but I figured you guys would enjoy this as much as I had writing it out. Who knows, I might dive into writing a one-shot for this, maybe something post-story if you guys like it enough. It'd be fun to come back to and give it something proper.
> 
> So enjoy, stay safe, and let's enjoy summer for what we can!

** Major Differences: **

  * The Earth was flooded 30 years ago in what became known as the World Tsunami. It started as severe thunderstorms and high flooding for weeks before the tidal waves showed up and destroyed countries. The world’s population has dwindled to tens of thousands and only a few deserted islands remain.
  * Humanity now resides on massive cruise ships (eight in total), each manned by a different country. These cruise ships are in contact with each other but rarely make contact in favor of staying isolated in a territorial game of survival. The Parnassus, led by Captain Kray Foresight, represents America.
  * Burning Rescue is now Ocean Rescue; basically glorified lifeguards and entertainers. If someone goes overboard they are happy to dive off the ship to rescue them alongside keeping the peace on the ship. Some members, like Aina and Galo, also have side-gigs performing shows for their citizens. Aina is an announcer for board game nights and sports championships and Galo works with the mers and pumps the crowd up in performances. Remi, Lucia, and Varys are shipwrights on the side.
  * Freeze Force, now Sea Force, are the ones dishing out punishment if there are crimes inside or outside the ship. Most of the knuckleheads are out patrolling the ocean on wavers and reporting back to the ship in case of any on-course collisions or threats. They are also the ones that “supposedly” find injured mer to bring back to the ship. They’re still abusers of power, Vulcan especially.
  * Burnish are now mermaids, or mers for short. Deep ocean-dwelling creatures that have the capacity to live in the deep or near the surface. They have humanoid features but are more fish than man and can be as short as six feet and as long as twenty. They can sport features from most fish species (from goldfish to lionfish) and have the capacity to manipulate water, though how powerful they are varied. Some can also be poisonous, venomous, discharge ink, or discharge electricity depending on their species. Because mers communicate with echolocation and sharp noises and aren’t the pretty blonde lady on top and fish on the bottom, the normal stigmatism is that they’re animals and are treated as such.
  * Mers usually act on their instincts first but are very intelligent overall. Unlike the rumors that are led to believe about them being territorial, they prefer to travel in packs with usually a designated leader to keep any threats at bay. They can pick up on stuff quickly and are better at reading a room than most humans. They are very sensitive to bright lights. If a group of mers come together they can strengthen their power to control the ocean and only grow more powerful the more mers join in. Some scientists speculate they were the ones to cause the World Tsunami but with recent years the populace sees them less as a threat through Galo’s shows and the aquarium in the Parnassus.
  * Mers don’t have unique names given upon birth. They are usually identified by what stage they are currently in (hatchling, small, grown), or what title they are given (rogue, leader, smaller leader, foragers, warriors, mate).
  * One of the mer’s most magical powers comes through the ability to change into humans and walk on land if given a bit of human blood. Although, the mer will always retain a few key pieces of their original identity, such as eyes, ears, webbed fingers, or scales dotted around their body. It necessarily doesn’t have to be all of these features but every mer does sport scales somewhere on their new bodies and the placement will never change. If a mer consumes a couple droplets of human blood, they can change into a human for a few short hours before they are forced to return to the water less they suffocate. However, if a mer drinks human blood regularly, they can keep up the transformation for as long as they keep ingesting the substance.
  * Vice versa, a mer’s blood, if drank by a human, can turn the human into a mer for the same duration of time. A human-turned-mer however, does not obtain any basic instincts or knowledge of how to properly function like a mer. It has to be learned for them, like handing a person a set of tools without telling them what they do or how to use them. Neither of these techniques are known to humans though and are kept a treasured secret by mer to conceal their identities and keep their people safe. However, the rumor that a mer can bestow a human the ability to breathe underwater if kissed is still prevalent, but humans aren’t really willing to try.
  * Kray Foresight is in fact a mer, but thanks to keeping a steady diet of human blood, has been able to keep up his disguise for well over a decade. It’s only gotten easier with the Parnassus’ great health care and incentive to have people donate blood for those in need, going under the guise of delivering a bag to a fake doctor. The Parnassus also hides the horrible secret that its powered by mers thanks to their ability to generate currents, making the cruise ship one of the first in the world to run of “fresh, clean energy” without the need for un-renewable resources. While the ship keeps a chart of the mers on board to most of the staff for audience sympathy and entertainment, there are a couple hundred unmarked and “released back into the wild” that still reside on the ship, burning out and being disposed of until Sea Force captures another fresh body. Kray’s telling mer features are the abundance of scaly patches on his left arm and his slits for pupils.
  * Lio is a moray and electric eel crossbreed, Gueira is a yellowfin tuna breed, Meis is a sailfish breed and Kray is a pufferfish breed. Whenever Galo changes into a mer, he is a red lionfish breed.
  * The Parnassus was originally built and manned by Deus Prometh, who had visions of creating a ship that would run with the help of mers. It was launched too early to realize that dream thanks to the World Tsunami, but Deus kept at trying to form a peaceful friendship with any mers that would wander up to the ship. Unfortunately, Deus and a few of his associates were supposedly slaughtered by a mer 15 years after the launch of the Parnassus when he was close to a breakthrough. This also included Galo’s parents, who were good friends with the Captain. The only one who witnessed the murders was a new apprentice under Deus, Kray Foresight, who humbly took on the role of Captain and vowed to dedicate his life to completing the doctor’s research. The medical bay for injured mers, the aquarium for rehabilitation, and the shows are all Kray’s efforts to desensitize the public to the creatures.
  * When Galo isn’t saving drowning elderly or singing karaoke when prompted, he’s usually down in the mer docks getting the mers acclimated to humans and training them for shows. He has a huge heart for them and isn’t easily frightened whenever they lash out or try to attack. He’s been handling them before his parent’s death and feels he’s making them proud whenever he plays with them.
  * Remi used to have a girlfriend who worked alongside Ocean Rescue but mysteriously vanished. While many of his team members believe she fell and drowned, Remi still holds onto the belief that she turned into a mermaid and swam away after catching a glimpse of her with a tail the night she disappeared. No one believes him. She used to handle the mers alongside Galo two years ago.



Main Story

The story begins with the discovery of a newly injured mer found by Sea Force. Galo, excited to see the new mer and hardly listening to authority, rushes down to the infirmary level to greet their newest addition. Kray is found just outside the doors when Galo arrives and gets a light scolding from Kray for trying to go into an unauthorized area. Galo asks why Kray is there and he explains that he comes to see all new mers that arrive on the ship and proceeds to go and inspect the newest addition while Galo frustratingly waits outside. When Kray comes out he reminds Galo to keep his distance with this one, as it's not friendly at all, and to wear his protective gloves when handling it. Wouldn’t want it biting him and infecting him with something deadly.

Once Kray leaves Galo sneaks his way into the infirmary to catch a glance of the new mer. The size of the mer is rather impressive, longer than the average with black scales and long white antenna. It's horribly bruised with wounds all over its body. The moment the mer notices Galo it violently reacts and jolts the tank with electricity, which only makes Galo even more excited about their newest addition. It’s Galo’s thing to name all the mers that come in, so he lovingly names the new mer, Lio.

Once Lio is healed up enough to leave the infirmary, he’s placed in his own tank in his own room, as decreed by Kray, who is concerned his presence with the other mers might stress or aggravate them. Galo tries to move Lio to the training room but gets shocked or attacked the moment he gets near, but isn’t deterred. He will be best friends with this mer dammit.

As the days go on, Lio starts to settle down around Galo enough to where he can approach without Lio trying to maul his face off. Though on one odd day when he took his gloves off to appear friendlier Lio took the chance to bite and drew blood. The other workers on the floor detained Lio immediately and sent Galo to the infirmary where he was patched up and forced to take the rest of the day off. He still snuck down during the night, worried Lio might be stressed about hurting him accidentally and that he needed to show him he was okay only to find his tank empty.

Searching the floor in case Lio was moved elsewhere, he soon hears wet footsteps and runs into a pale, naked ass man trying to break into a room. Their short light green hair doesn’t ring any bells, but the vibrant rosy eyes remind him a lot of Lio and before he can confront the naked thief they run off. Galo gives chase and nearly calls down his team but is led all the way back to Lio’s room, where he finds the mer back in his tank. The relief of finding him brings Galo over to apologize to Lio, asking where he went and showing him his bandaged hand and that he doesn’t blame him for attacking and vows that he’ll make him see he’s good. Lio doesn’t look like he cares too much or can understand and Galo spends the rest of the night searching for the perpetrator till he ends up passed out above Lio’s tank.

Galo is scolded the next morning for not going back to his room as no one on his team believes him about the naked man he chased all night. The news of Galo’s accident reaches Kray who comes to pay Galo a visit and gives him a very hard scolding for letting Lio draw blood. He warns Galo if he keeps being incompetent it could risk his life and that if he doesn’t get Lio under control he will have no choice but to release Lio back into the ocean with his wounds still healing. Galo, taking full responsibility for Lio’s actions, swears he will train Lio to be better.

When asked if he saw anything suspicious that night, he tells him of the naked man. Kray thanks him for the information, ordering Galo to contact Sea Force should he see him again and Kray leaves telling Galo that he cares about the safety of the people here more than the mers, still traumatized by Deus and his parent’s deaths. Galo isn’t hot the rest of the day but bounces back thanks to support from Aina and Remi.

Galo, with Aina hanging out, spends the evening with Lio, still trying to acclimate him to human interaction. With his gloves on Lio keeps himself tamed, but when he tries to take the gloves off again he narrowly misses being bit. Aina also tries to be friendly with Lio but gets the same reception. Aina suggests that Lio might be aggravated because he’s never experienced being in a tank before and offers to help move Lio to the training room. With their combined efforts and help from Lucia, who mans the crane to safely move mers into the training tank, they successfully get Lio into the larger and more decorated tank. When it doesn’t seem to help Galo decides to bring in another mer, to the dismay of Lucia and Aina, who believe Lio will tear them to shreds.

Galo insists he’s gotta be upset because he has no playmates and rushes off to get Meis, one of the tamer mers that he’s finally been able to showcase in his shows after training with him for a few months. Upon dumping him into the tank they notice Lio perk up immediately and even Lucia with primed to snatch them out with her machinery the two mers hit it off especially well and go to hide away in a built-in cave. The crew calls it a job well done and Galo lets them have their fun swimming around and communicating until curfew arrives. The moment Lucia tries to take Meis, Lio reacts violently, nearly breaking the tank with his power as Galo manages to calm Lio down with an emergency sedative. Lucia and Galo make a pact not to tell anyone of this and Galo takes Lio back to his room.

The next day Galo is greeted to an even grumpier Lio, who absolutely refuses to come up to see him. He’s back to trying to attack him if he does. Galo, understanding the loss of someone they cared about, promises to Lio that he can see Meis again but that he needs to be good for the both of them. He confesses to Lio that if he continues being bad then Kray will throw him off the boat and just afterward Kray comes in to check up on the two. Lio reacts just as violently seeing Kray as Galo covers by saying he hasn’t been fed yet. Kray, still uncertain keeping Lio is a good idea, comes to ask about the cracked training tank and that the records show another handler was in the room at the time of the crack. Galo, realizing Lucia hacked the records to cover for them, keeps quiet as Kray still makes him take responsibility as the main handler and that he’ll be cleaning the tank in preparation for the new walls. Galo accepts and Kray warns him again that Lio better be showing results soon or he’ll have to release him for Galo’s safety.

As Kray leaves, Galo admits to Lio that Kray is a good man who really cares about them, but that he feels Kray puts a lot more pressure on him to be like his parents. He promises to Lio that he won’t let Kray throw him overboard and that he isn’t afraid of him, placing his ungloved hand in the water. In a surprising twist, Lio doesn’t immediately try to tear his hand off, but rather takes a calmer approach and feels over his hand with his own webbed one. Their eyes connect and for a moment Galo feels like he’s taken a step in the right direction.

The next few days Galo sees much improvement on Lio’s part. He takes his food without hissing or trying to claw his arm off and comes to the surface to poke his head out whenever Galo sits on the edge. He ditched the handler gloves and lets Lio touch over his hands and the bandages. He gets used to using Lio as a soundboard for a lot of his grand adventures throughout the boat but also for little insecurities and worries. He finds Lio to be a more calming presence then he imagined. Upon one visit from Aina, hearing the good news that Lio is finally settling down, she tries the same gesture of putting her hand in the water and gets bit by Lio, who again draws blood. Galo, freaking out, is soon calmed by Aina who quickly uses some on-hand gauze and swears not to tell the infirmary, knowing Lio’s predicament. Besides, if Heris knew she’d _flip_. She’s still got a chip on her shoulder about mers but Aina can’t blame her. Galo tries to verify; it was the pool right, and Aina nods. When she was too little to remember but she and Heris had snuck out to the pool at night to swim without knowing a mer was in it. It tried going for Aina but Heris shoved her away and Heris got bit on the leg, a scar she still has. Deus was the one to rescue them as they ran back crying to their parents. She comments that Lio must really like him and Galo gives Lio a scolding for hurting Aina.

That night, Galo goes down to the lower levels once again with an overall worry of Kray finding out and panics when he discovers Lio’s tank is empty again. But when he turns around he finds the naked man waiting for him outside the doorway with those same glowing eyes.

His first instinct is to call Sea Force just as Kray ordered but is soon taken by the wrist and pulled down the halls by the man. He’s dragged all the way to one of the mer rooms and at first, Galo demands the stranger’s name and why he’s been running around without any pants, but the man doesn’t speak. It’s then that Galo notices his finned ears and webbed hands and gets lightly spooked, but the stranger, not here to deal with his shit, continues to gesture to the keycard scanner near the door. Galo complies, voicing out-loud that if this _thing_ tries anything he’s prepared to fight him on behalf of the mer, and they go inside. There, they find a few tanks nestled with mer sleeping inside, all of which awake and go wide-eyed at seeing the stranger.

The stranger picks out Meis’ tank and rushes over as Galo watches the mer inside press against the tank in almost relief. He feels some type of heartache watching the two press their foreheads against the glass, looking ever so lost and upset but steps in when the stranger tries to climb into Meis’ tank. He forces him back, much to the stranger trying to claw his way free and realizes doing so upsets the rest of the mer in the room. They begin to act out and cracking the glass, startling Galo enough to release the stranger and tend to the rest. By the time he’s calmed the rest, he finds the stranger climbing back down the side of the tank, displeased and looking more disgusted but he’s not making any more fuss.

Galo takes the stranger and they leave the mer room, with Galo cornering the stranger and demanding answers or be turned over to Sea Force. The stranger isn’t complying or talking, putting up a fuss that only frustrates Galo more. Just when he’s about had it and ready to call in reinforcements the stranger takes Galo’s hand and begins to play with it, much in the same way Lio did. Their eyes connect again and the stranger loosely smiles. Galo…is disturbed by this mutant but turns away and says he doesn’t want to catch him down here again. By the time he turns back, the stranger is gone and before Galo leaves the deck he checks on Lio’s tank again to find him back inside. He comes over and leans against it, telling him about this weird-ass stranger he just had to deal with but he’s glad Lio’s back. The mer leans against the glass much like he saw Meis and the stranger do, giving him some incredible déjà vu that he dismisses and heads for bed.

The next couple of weeks Galo sees a change in Lio; he’s becoming a lot calmer and allowing him to get up close and personal. Now he’ll swim up and perch his arms on the edge whenever Galo sits and listens, or, Galo likes to think he is, whenever he talks about his grand ideas and any and all thoughts. Lio keeps touching over him and Galo lets him as he does the same, having never felt this close of a bond with a mer before. Eventually, he’s able to bring Lio to the training room daily where they begin lessons, all of which Lio is stubborn to start but catches the hang of it far faster than any mer he’s trained. He gets lots of treats and Galo even brings back in Meis on occasion and his show-partner, Gueira, to try and train them all in hopes that he can add Lio to the show. They not only get along but even seem happier together, chattering away probably about what’s for lunch. The only mer who gets upset now whenever they have to be separated is Gueira, but Galo always found him to have an attitude.

He’s even able to introduce the rest of Ocean Rescue to Lio without stressing the mer out. Aina congratulates Galo on a job well done and that he should propose to the aquarium to bring Lio on board. Galo dismisses the idea, saying he wants Lio to be the shining star he is for his show and that he’ll wow the crowds then, but Remi bluntly states throwing Lio in front of tens of people might cause him to relapse and that the aquarium would help him acclimate. Unless Galo wanted a scene and Kray handing his ass to him. Galo, pouting, puts in the order to have Lio start appearing in the aquarium.

A few days later and the order is approved, giving Galo access to move Lio into the aquarium starting next week. He wakes up earlier before his morning shift to take Lio to the quiet aquarium and get him acclimated to the center tank for big events, as he’ll be the centerpiece for a couple of weeks. Kray meets him down there as he’s bringing Lio in and shockingly Lio keeps his cool, though he still looks pissed. Kray is impressed that Galo has managed to tame Lio so quickly and expects great work out of the both of them, to which Galo swears he’ll make Kray proud.

After he’s left, Galo uses the machinery and a sling to get Lio into the main pool and notices him relax a bit more. As he comes over to sit on the edge Lio swims up faster than he anticipated and pulls him under the water. He freaks for a moment until he notices the expression Lio is making. Is that a smirk? He pouts and hears a new noise from Lio, one that almost mimics a laugh. He lets Galo resurface to get some air and they spend most of the morning swimming around together, Galo showing him all the nooks and crannies he recalls and Lio letting his tail brush along Galo and hold onto him.

As the days pass Galo finds it harder and harder to leave Lio alone for long periods of time. He’s come to enjoy his company so much, from swimming with him in the aquarium to feeding him and continuing to train him with Gueira and Meis in the afternoon. He gets snide comments from his team during work, mainly Aina, about when he’s going to bring his fish boyfriend around and if he’s not careful he might end up a fish too. Remi speaks up that he wasn’t hallucinating, she totally was a fish and Varys just gives him some sad comfort over the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend. Galo swats Aina’s antics away.

With the premiere of Lio at the aquarium tomorrow, Galo gets extra excited and a little reckless when he’s with Lio in the center tank. Lio senses said excitement, leading to the two roughhousing in the water to the point where Galo is accidentally knocked against one of the coral reefs and scratches up his back. Lio takes him back to the edge as Galo rests half out of the water, feeling the sting of the open wound. He knows he’s bleeding but when he tries to get out he feels Lio tugging him to stay and his rough tongue up along with wound. He tries to squirm out of his grasp but Lio holds him firm and Galo relents, believing Lio to be tending to his wounds in only the way he knows how. He finds that sentiment sweet enough. Once Lio lets go he climbs out, inspects the damage, and pulls a shirt over his back since the bleeding stopped. He puts a finger to his mouth to keep this a secret as he doesn’t want Kray to worry and Lio mimics and gesture, exciting Galo.

That night, Galo is awoken to someone nudging him awake in his bed. He turns and nearly screams when he sees the rosy eyes, turning on the lights to find naked man once again. He doesn’t get a word out before the man is holding his finger up to his mouth, eyes serious and almost afraid. Galo asks how the _hell_ he got in here but the stranger takes his hand and tries leading him out into the hall before Galo stops him. Does this guy not realize his swinging dick makes it really hard to focus? He forces the stranger into at least one of his shirts, enough to cover his pale ass, which the stranger hisses at, but gives up and continues pulling Galo down the hall.

The questions are long and rapid as Galo tries to get any information out of this man but again, he’s left with the silent treatment. The man does stop to try and pull up his nightshirt and lick his back, but Galo pushes the guy off, thoroughly embarrassed, and questioning if he knows what personal boundaries are. Sheesh. The stranger gives him the saddest stare and stops touching him and continues leading.

Down the halls and descending staircase after staircase, Galo notices footprints that get wetter the farther down they go out of the aquarium level. The stranger steps in them almost without thought but keeps going down until the stairs end at a door with another keycard scanner and a bright red sign for employees only. Oh, so he’s trying to break in again.

Galo refuses at first, saying he’s had enough trouble and that he needs all the sleep he can get for Lio’s big day tomorrow, something that the stranger rolls his eyes to and Galo takes offense of. He then spouts off about how great Lio is, sure, he can be really cranky sometimes and he did attack him a lot at first, but he knows it was because he was scared and believes Lio to have the biggest heart when you get to know him. He fully believes Lio to be the shining star he will make him to be and feels he’s gotten through to the stranger from the innocent and almost star-struck gaze he gets back. The stranger then points at themselves, getting more violent with the pointing as Galo gives him the dumbest look of confusion. He gives up, shakes his head, but does use the stair railing and a step to lift himself higher and brush his cheek against his. Galo backs away, bro, personal space, and feels odd that it’s making him feel so flustered. It’s not like the stranger isn’t ungodly attractive, but take a guy on a date first before you brush cheeks together.

For some reason, Galo feels more compliant to help the stranger, telling himself the stranger has to have a good reason. Maybe he works there and just…forgot his clothes and ID inside. He scans his card and both enter inside the red-tinted halls. Galo explains to the stranger that this is the repair level, where if any damage happens to the bottom of the ship or database they come here to fix it and admits he’s only ever been down here and has access is because Lucia is constantly sending him on snack runs when she’s busy rewiring the mainframe. The stranger doesn’t seem to care and it’s at this point Galo notices his finned ears splayed out and twitching.

He follows closely behind as the stranger will sometimes stop and hide whenever someone comes down the hall. They eventually make their way down a small flight of stairs to another locked door with a bright blue sign above it for the engine room. The stranger seems to be fidgeting as much as his ears, on edge as he points to the keycard scanner again with more urgency. Galo tells him he doesn’t have access to this area and that he shouldn’t even be going in, but the stranger doesn’t listen and begins showing signs of anger. He bares his sharp teeth as he tries sticking his fingers through the cracks to pry the door open, forcing Galo to pull him away. The stranger reacts violently, snapping and trying to pry his arms off, resulting in them both fighting. At one point the stranger jams their feet up against the wall and pushes back, throwing Galo into the keypad and activating the alarm system. They try to escape as Galo is afraid of Sea Force catching the stranger, deciding to shove them inside a closet and holding his finger back up to his lips, pleading to stay there until Sea Force is gone.

Shutting the closet, it’s not soon after that Galo is cornered on every side by the grunts led by Vulcan, who bashes his head in and ‘apologizes’ when he’s on the ground, saying he thought he saw the ugliest bug running on two legs. Dragged by his shirt, Galo is taken all the way up to Kray’s office and thrown in, where Kray coldly asks him what he was doing trying to break into the engine room in the dead of night. He shouldn’t even have access to the repair level.

Galo tries to plead a case on the spot, that it was an accident and that he never intended to go in, just that he was patrolling and it malfunction. Kray sighs and says he’s deeply disappointed in Galo for trying to lie to his face. He was best friends with his parents, raised him almost like his own son after their brutal slaughter, why would he cover this up? This causes Galo to admit the truth about the stranger, but that he had taken him there because he assumed he worked there.

There’s a moment of panic and rage before Kray puts back on his formality, scolding Galo like a hot knife to the chest about how his loyalties were so easy to sway with a pretty face and a little white lie. He clearly couldn’t trust Galo to do his job right and protect their people from who could be a spy from another ship. Galo begs for forgiveness, which Kray denies him, saying Galo needs to think long and hard on what almost could have happened all because of him. But, the aquarium opening is tomorrow and we wouldn’t want people to suspect why you aren’t there to highlight your favorite star. He tells Galo he’ll be seeing him bright and early tomorrow morning with a genuine smile for the aquarium’s big unveil and afterward they’ll talk about his punishment.

Taken away by guards, Galo is put back into his room. He tries to sneak out to see Lio but is forced back in by Vulcan, who berates him for being put on babysitting duty and socks him in the face for a little entertainment. Galo goes to bed that night unable to sleep and crying into his pillow.

It’s not until the early morning that Galo is allowed to leave his room. He drags himself, almost like a zombie, down to the aquarium where he kept Lio for the night to get him acclimated to sleeping there. Lio immediately pushes into the glass with big eyes the moment Galo enters, exiting the water on the perch and reaching for him when he sits down. The mer buries his head into his chest, arms around him as Galo gives a hug back, sadly chuckling and asking why Lio looks so guilty. He didn’t do anything wrong, if anything Galo was the one to blame.

He thanks Lio though for the hug and starts tearing up again, asking why he’s been feeling like such a fool. That he can’t do anything right. Lio, crooning and cooing in a way that calms some of his nerves, raises up to brush against his cheek several times. Galo recognizes the gesture and tells Lio that he met someone last night who did the same thing. It made him feel just as fuzzy and flustered, only he likes Lio’s more. He sinks into the water with Lio and continues to let him cuddle him and wrap his tail around him as Galo takes a moment to cry and pull himself together. He admits it’s not fair Lio isn’t a human, how he’d love to take him out and Goddammit maybe Aina was onto something. He didn’t want Lio to look at him as his handler and he never believed mers were just thoughtless animals. But alas.

He also admits to Lio that he might not see him after today. That he got in trouble with Kray for last night and immediately notices Lio’s fins flare and regain that angered look. He tries to calm Lio down, promising he won’t let Kray take him away and that he will make sure he shines, but it doesn’t do anything to calm him down this time. He feels Lio tightening around him to the point of hurting, yelping and asking Lio to let go but eventually has to pry himself out of his grip. In his squirming Lio accidentally nicks his arm and it’s not until Galo gets out of the water that he realizes he’s bleeding. Lio comes back over, looking more guilty and licking up his mess again as Galo pets down his back and forgives him. He’s kind of used to this now, but he doesn’t blame Lio for being a swiss-army knife. At the very least, he can forgive him.

With the aquarium about to open and coworkers clocking in to get ready for the big day, Galo has to leave the pool to a worried and almost panicked Lio, who keeps trying to reach for him. Galo comes back and kneels down, assuring him he’ll be by his side all day and that he has nothing to worry about because he’ll be by his side. In a fit of emotional buildup, he confesses his love for the mer and leaves soon after to get dressed and ready for the event.

He downs several cups of coffee and gets dressed up in his own tailored sailor outfit, putting on quite a show and exciting the crowd for the unveiling. He swings from a giant prop anchor as the curtains pull back to show off Lio, who is an instant hit for the crowd. It’s clear Lio shows signs of nervousness and aggression at the first showing, but with Galo staying in view of Lio and allowing him to touch him occasionally during breaks, they manage to keep him calm enough to have pictures taken and kids press up against the glass. The rest of his teammates stay for the show as well, thoroughly impressed and proud of Galo for all his hard work with Lio. It’s enough love to get him through a few more shows, lifting his spirits enough to feel unstoppable.

Then the afternoon show rolls around and as the anchor drops with Galo getting ready to pump up the crowd he notices Kray in the audience. He’s shaken and stutters for a moment, forgetting his lines, but is able to pick back up and keep the momentum going. The unveiling of Lio is fine at first, the mer having gotten bored, but suddenly reacts violently and begins screaming. The crowd freaks and scatters when the waters overflow and Lio is banging against the glass and discharging electricity, crashing water into the stands. Galo dives in to try and calm Lio, swimming over and almost has his face ripped off till Lio sees him. Immediately, he feels Lio cling onto him and swim back into the alcove, keeping him trapped and hidden away. Galo struggles to get free, desperate for air as Lio won’t let him go. His vision goes blotchy as he starts to drown just as he feels his lips pulled apart and something kisses him. He tastes something that resembles iron and seaweed on his tongue but is soon torn away by a massive metal claw raising him out of the water.

Lio freaks and tries lunging up to grab Galo back down as he grips onto the claw for his life, heart racing and terrified. Sea Force steps in and sedates Lio enough to leave him unconscious. The crowds are gone, Lucia is manning the machinery as his team rushes him with towels and paramedics come over to check his vitals. Galo pleads to not take Lio away as he’s dragged off by Sea Force and Kray steps in saying what an absolutely miserable show that was. Clearly he put far too much faith in Thymos and should have never let this happen. He tells Galo he’s teetering on throwing Lio out right now for this stunt when Galo pleads not to. Kray cuts him off, stating Lio clearly tried to drown him and that he’s far too dangerous. When the paramedics are done with him, he will be cleaning the entire tank all night as just the tip of his punishment and ensures him that, for his own safety, Galo will never see Lio again.

The rest of Ocean Rescue tries butting in, stating how they’ve seen Lio with Galo and that this had to be a mistake but Kray shuts them all down. He won’t’ hear a word of it, he’s let this game go on for too long and takes full responsibility for this incident. He sympathizes with Galo, how hurt he must be to lose his pet, but sometimes a leader has to step in and dispose of a threat to their pack when they become too dangerous.

Galo… is not okay. After being released from the paramedics he stays in Lio’s old room, laying on the metal gridded edge with his arm stuck in the water. Aina and Lucia go off about how stupid Foresight’s decision is but Remi reminds them that he’s doing what he has to as Captain and be thankful he’s worried about Galo’s safety. They won’t’ ever truly know what went through Lio’s head at that time and Galo snaps, saying Lio would never try to drown him. He must have gotten spooked about something, but no one can come up with an answer as to why. Varys suggests that Lio might have felt threatened by something in the crowd, reminding them that mers are very territorial creatures, and Aina thinks Varys has a point, but they are all stumped on what that could have been. Regardless, Galo vows he’s going right up to Kray’s office the moment he’s done cleaning the tank to plead for Lio to stay. Aina voices her concern that Galo has tried long enough and maybe Lio doesn’t want to be the star Galo wants to make him to be but Galo lashes out that he’s not talking about the show anymore. He just wants the one he loves back. This stuns the team and Galo asks them to leave him alone for the day until he’s permitted to clean the aquarium, which they abide by.

As night comes and the rest of the ship goes to bed, Galo is found by one of the janitors with supplies in hand to go and clean the aquarium tank. Galo drags himself to get to work, entering the empty aquarium and makes his way over to the event tank. As he’s cleaning the top of the tank he notices the water ripple. Upon peering in his head is suddenly grabbed by a massive hand and dragged down into the water. He’s hardly able to get a breath of air as he’s forced to the bottom of the tank, being held down by something giant that he can’t make out. All he knows is it’s a mer he’s never handled, desperately struggling and hitting the hand to try and release him to no avail. His whole body is aching as if his bones are cracking as the mer bites down into his shoulder. Galo screams as the water rushes into his throat, thrashing turning useless as he notices a collection of bubbles far off.

The mer is tackled off him as he uses what precious seconds are left to try and swim to the surface for air only to feel his foot grabbed. His head feels ready to pop along with his neck, eyeing down to utter shock. The massive mer, decked out in spiny needles all over its body with raging red eyes has hold of his foot, soon released as Lio bites into its other arm. He’s never seen such rage from Lio as the larger mer focuses on grabbing Lio’s head and smashing it into the glass wall, creating a spiral of cracked glass.

But soon Galo can’t see anything as his vision fades, losing out to the lack of oxygen as he settles to the sandy floor. He can’t feel his body anymore and lets out another cry as he feels his sides split as if a sword cut cleanly through the skin. But all at once Galo gasps and is able to breathe again, shifting back up in time to watch his fingers web over. His fears are replaced with new ones as he hears much more clearly Lio crying out as the massive mer bites into his side.

Galo doesn’t even think another second, swimming up and over to the wall, slamming his fist into the emergency switch. The room warps in red with sirens blaring just as Galo is dragged back under to the same fiery eyes greeting him. He throws his left arm in front of him, ready to sacrifice it if need be, as he feels the burning teeth on flesh and just as quickly subside. The mer recoils, blood trickling up as Galo witnesses spiky fins grow out from the side of his arm. He uses this to his advantage and holds his arm out in front of him as Lio is back on the intruder, leaving his own nasty bite that erupts in clouds of blood over his neck.

Galo notices Lio’s scales shimmer in time to lunge out of the water and scramble up the edge, watching the light-show just underneath. How crisp and clear his hearing is, from every ripple of water to the deafening sirens, distracts him for too long as the ledge is smashed into. He falls back in and into the mer’s grasp, being slammed repeatedly into the glass wall. His arm hits at just the wrong angle, causing Galo to scream before feeling the claws of the hand prick his head and try to smash it to pieces.

As Galo’s life seems forfeit the giant metal claw slams into the tank, separating the two. Lio is back on the attacker as Galo surfaces to see Lucia manning the machinery. Aina and Remi are at the broken ledge, urging Galo to come over and get out of the tank as he furiously swims over. He screams at them to open the water valves just as he feels searing pain in his ankle and taken down again. Lio, in the midst of trying to claw the attacker’s back out, couldn’t stop it from sinking into his ankle, yanking and trying to tear his limb off. He uses his other foot to kick his head, only deepening his fangs. Reaching higher, Lio coils around the beast just as Galo rams his heel into the monster’s eyes, forcing it off. Lio discharges again, shocking the creature and also zapping Galo in the process, who is nearly ready to pass out.

Flinging the mer back, Lio rushes and secures Galo just as the large valve at the bottom of the tank slides open. A whirlpool forms as both mers swim to try and escape it. Galo eyes the crane and gets Lio’s attention to swim for it just as the monster snags the end of his tail. Both are yanked back and towards the tunnel, keeping them out of reach just until the prop anchor launches down and smacks the dangerous mer in the head. It goes down the drain with a murderous yell as Lio darts for the crane just as it snatches Galo. Galo holds desperately onto Lio as they are both dragged up and out of the receding water until the tank is completely drained.

Lowered back down, Galo sinks to the sandy floor, having a hard time breathing. Lio’s slimy but cool scales cover him as he hears him go back and forth between sounding absolutely miserable and hissing. He tells Lio to knock it off as his friends rush over, completely freaked out and asking a million questions. But Galo doesn’t get to answer any of them before he blacks out.

Upon waking up, Galo notices three things. Lio is gone, he’s in the infirmary with many bandages and hooked to an IV, and Kray is sitting on a chair by his side.

Kray still holds an air of distance but also relief, thanking whatever god was out there that Galo survived. His first question is where Lio is but Kray reassures Galo that he won’t ever hurt him again. This confuses Galo, to which Kray explains that he had an accident last night while cleaning the tanks. Kray looks…uncomfortable, but decides to let Galo in on a secret that Deus Prometh shared with him before he passed. The reason why Kray was so keen on mers never biting humans was not that they carried an infectious disease, but because if they consume human blood, they can temporarily walk among humans. Galo, shocked by this news, listens as Kray explains the naked man he had found time and again must have been Lio. He was stalking him, waiting for an opportune moment to kill him, and last night he must have snuck into the aquarium to do just that.

Galo doesn’t believe any of that, saying Lio was saving his life from a different mer that attacked him, just check the water reserves, and Kray bluntly states that they had and there was no mer inside. Lio attacked him intending to murder him, and Kray theorizes that in such a state of shock and delusion from drowning he witnessed the other mer instead. Truly, the mind can play so many tricks when it doesn’t want to believe the truth.

Galo’s voice gets higher as he says Lio would never do that and demands to see Lio. Kray, unmoving, tells him that he’s already given the order to have Lio released. In fact, Sea Force is in the process right now. Lio had shown his true colors and Kray wouldn’t allow him to murder the last vestige of family Kray had.

But Galo shouldn’t worry, because Kray canceled everything to be by his side all day. Just them. To ensure Galo didn’t do anything rash. It would also be a tragedy if his wounds reopened and he died of blood loss. Truly tragic.

Galo looks about as great as if his hopes and dreams were smashed right in front of him by a speeding train.

Everything in him is screaming to get up and stop this mess, to convince Kray that Lio wasn’t the one who tried to murder him. But he sees no out, resigned to his worthless fate. Then, the sirens start blaring as Kray’s walkie-talkie goes off that there’s an incident down in the engine room. His eyes cross paths with Galo and for a split second, he thinks he sees a smidge of red before Kray is up, declaring he’s on his way. He tells Galo to rest and that he’ll be back soon, then they can finally have a heart-to-heart.

The moment Kray leaves Galo is already working the IV drip out of him and unhooking himself from the heart monitor. His steps out of bed are wobbly and he almost falls, his entire body bruised as he notices his hands are normal, same as his arm. He doesn’t think about it long and reaches the door just as it opens to Lucia and Aina side-by-side.

Galo tells them he doesn’t have time and he isn’t afraid to break past them if they try to stop him, but Lucia tells him to cut the theatrics because they’re here to help. Who do you think tripped the alarms, dummy? Aina informs Galo that Kray’s convinced Lio tried killing him despite all their eye witness accounts that it was another mer and that Sea Force is taking him down to the release bay as they speak. They couldn’t stand to see Lio be framed and from how upset Galo was, they knew they had to try and stop this. Galo, having never felt more appreciated, thanks the two and tells them they’re going straight down to there to catch Sea Force.

Lucia then informs him he can barely run with all his fractures and then wheels up a wheelchair. They push him into it, with Aina manning the handles, as they make a break for the elevator.

When they reach the bottom they take a sharp turn away from the engine room towards the release bay, Galo tightly gripping the armrests as Aina bolts. Lucia is communicating with Remi and Varys, who are currently keeping Vulcan and his team occupied upstairs with their little ‘spat’ over Galo’s near-death experience. Galo asks Aina what the plan is, to which she throws back at him that he’s the one that wants to save Lio, he needs to come up with a plan. Both bicker back and forth about who should be leading the charge till Lucia tells them to shut up as she punches a code into the keypad.

As the doors slide back, Galo sees the end of Lio’s tail being stuffed into a giant cylindrical container attached to the wall. The door is shut as the two Sea Force agents by then notice them. Lucia tries to propose a bribe to the agents for leaving this here room and not telling anyone but Galo makes a mess of the plan when he pushes out of the wheelchair in a mad scramble for the container. One agent knocks him back and onto his ass as Aina grabs the nearest broom, cracking it on the agent’s side. That does nothing.

Both men are trained onto Galo, who is failing to get back up when Lucia soon drives by in a forklift, smashing into one of the agents and chasing the other. Aina fumbles to help Galo up as they make it over to the container, sliding up the hatch. Lio is unconscious but breathing when Galo puts his head to his chest. He can’t contain his emotion seeing Lio again as Aina tells him to hurry up, Lucia can’t run them down forever. As she says that she screams as she’s taken from behind, mouth clamped and feet kicking. Galo hears Lucia cry out for Galo to run as he feels another hit to his back and suddenly being stuffed into the container. He hears one of the agents remarks if he wants to be with the mers so bad he can stay with them before the hatch is secured. Galo fumbles to try and lift it on his side to no avail just as the container lurches and the wall opens up to a flood of icy ocean water.

The container thrusts out, jostling Galo and Lio straight into the ocean. Everything is pitch black and stinging as Galo manages to keep hold of Lio, though his form is extremely heavy. His hand is still holding onto the container as it drags itself back in. Something sharp and hard hits his hand and instinctively he lets go in fear. The fear of drowning in the ocean with Lio, of never seeing his friends again, of being the fool he was always told he was sends him into a panic attack, one that only escalates his desire to breathe. Breathe… he could underwater last night, didn’t he? He didn’t dream that up?

Reminded of Kray’s words, he takes Lio’s arm, apologizes, and tries biting it to realize his scales are a hell of a lot harder than he thought. He gives up there, on the verge of suffocating as he goes for the only spot he considers soft and sensitive. Finding Lio’s lips, he tilts his head up and goes in, biting down on his lower lip and drawing that familiar iron and seaweed taste. At once he feels his body burn as if going through a growth spurt, head throbbing and arms aching. The slices to his sides weren’t as surprisingly painful this time around, able to breathe in the water as the rest of the changes almost feel instantaneous. His ears thin out and frill off the sides of his head, his eyes sharpen and glow, his teeth grow sharp and his skin is lined with a fresh set of red and blue scales. The legs are especially painful, being forced together with bones growing and snapping to make an impressive and extremely massive tail. Spines line the back of his body and over his arms just as Lio awakens, shocked at what he’s seeing.

Galo tries to speak to him but garble comes out instead, suddenly unable to annunciate or properly form any words with his new tongue and throat. Lio blinks then makes that sound which, with his new ears, definitely sounds like a laugh. They tenderly embrace but have little time to do so when Galo notices the boat, his home, so far away now. He takes Lio’s hand, trying and failing to swim with his new tail. Lio takes both his hands and keeps Galo under him as he swims as fast as he can, allowing Galo to take some time to get a feel for the back and forth motions he should be making. He can’t help but admire the ocean from his new set of eyes and the desire to explore it with Lio together. To get lost, to have it just be them.

He doesn’t linger long in this fantasy as he soon is keeping pace with Lio, moving to his side as they slowly gain ground. The massive propellers at the bottom of the boat push the two back from reaching the door, with Galo then pointing upward and making a swooping motion down. He can tell Lio is still confused as he Galo pulls Lio up and over the currents where they can get closer to the boat. The metal door is just beneath them, starting to descend as he feels the currents pick up and tumble them away.

It’s getting harder to swim this fast with his new body, losing energy as Lio leads the way to try again. On their second try, diving much faster, Galo manages to reach out and secure his fingertips over the lip of the door as the currents catch them. Lio jerks and holds onto Galo’s chest tightly as they’re both blown to and fro by the currents. Galo feels like his arm is going to rip off as he screams, forcing his arm to pull him up till his head touches the door. He slams into it one time, two times, three times, each time loosening his hold as his energy is nearly depleted.

In a fit of desperation, he tries communicating with Lio, pointing to his tail and making zigzag lines. It takes a few tries before Lio starts charging up, squeezing his eyes shut and discharging a volt of electricity. It nearly makes Galo lose his hold just as the door short-circuits and slides away. The pull of water into the boat gives Galo enough strength to pull himself into the container. The hatch is open, gripping it tightly and pulling up and over the door and back onto the floor. Lio soon follows suit, just two giant mers in a thin puddle. Galo breathes deeply, the air suddenly his enemy but he almost doesn’t care as he sits up in time with Lio. Both their hands find one another, Galo caressing his cheek as they both share a feverish kiss that makes him even more light-headed. From the way Lio coos he knows in his heart that Lio feels just the same as him, content to pass out while making out till he feels a downpour of water atop his head.

Both stare up, Lio mildly annoyed and still kissing him to Aina and Lucia holding buckets and thoroughly shocked. Aina asks what the fresh hell is going on and why Galo is suddenly a giant spiny mer. Could he always do that??

Galo tries his hardest to explain the situation but all that comes out of his mouth is weird garbled noises. This doesn’t settle either of them down. Galo is then pushed out of the puddle by Lio, awkwardly rolling him away from any source of water and slapping his tail with his. Galo is a little baffled, rude, but the fanning of Lio’s tail and the dry ground makes him feel all woozy and painful again. The slits on his side close as he breathes air again, shifting back into his smaller but still large human form. Aina throws a towel at Galo’s head to cover himself up as Lucia tells Aina to cough up the money; he was a shower.

They are still lined up with questions as Galo ignores them, nudging his arm to Lio, who seems almost relieved Galo finally gets it. He takes just his pinky finger instead and gives it a playful bite, and in just a few minutes, the little naked ass pale man is kneeling right in front of him. Galo laughs, saying Lio should have said something this whole time. Lio then tackles him to the ground, rolling his eyes and giving him another kiss.

It’s hard not to want to give in but Aina taps them both with the half-broken broom, saying she doesn’t understand what’s going on but they should probably hide Lio and get Galo back to his room before Kray starts setting off alarms. Galo agrees, only now it’s harder to get Lio off of him when he doesn’t want him to go. He tells Aina to hide him in his room, which Lucia then calls him an idiot because they’re probably already scoping out his room. Galo then tells them to hide Lio in Remi’s room, they’d never look there!

Aina tells Galo Remi will have hell with him if he finds a naked man in his bed, to which Galo agrees; dress him up in some of his clothes too and explain the situation. Just until Galo can be released from the infirmary.

Lucia calls them both idiots and says she’ll take Lio to Remi, as she feels she understands the situation the best of the three. Aina, thankful she doesn’t have to try and explain whatever this is, states she’ll take Galo back to his room. They get started immediately, though Lio already runs back to Galo’s side, unwilling to leave. Galo assures Lio again that he has to hide right now but he will be brought back to him and that he’s never letting him go again. Lio seems to partially understand, enough for Lucia to tug him away, but as he leaves he speaks.

“Galo… love.”

It reinvigorates Galo as he tells Lio he loves him back and Aina gets him into the wheelchair. With her jacket thrown over his junk and being told he’s buying her a new one, Aina races off back down the halls asking Galo what they’re going to do. Just dump him into bed, duh. _Duh_ , you smell like saltwater, dumbass. So just throw me in the shower and tell Kray I’m taking one! What if you turn back into a mer?! What then?!

They continue to bicker all the way up to his room, where Aina pulls Galo back from getting onto the bed. He lunges out of the chair and smacks his head on the side of the bed, both fighting over who’s fault that was while Aina throws another hospital gown at him. She leaves in a hurry as Galo fidgets throwing it over his chest and settling into bed. He hears water running and Aina rush back in with a bucket of water, telling Galo to move. He turns halfway as Aina splashes the bed and then the other side just as the doors slide open to Kray entering.

Aina shouts about how she got Galo good and gasps seeing Kray, dropping the bucket. Kray asks what’s going on as Aina explains how it’s an Ocean Rescue hazing thing; Galo scared them to death with his accident so she got back at him by splashing him with saltwater. Galo goes along with the story, yelling at Aina that he’s cold to the bone and that he’ll get her good the moment he’s released.

Kray, seemingly buying into the lie, tells Aina that theatrics are not appreciated here and that she could have damaged one of the thousands of dollars worth of machinery and if she had that kind of money. He asks her to leave her nonsense for when they’re on break and to go back to her coworkers.

Galo is left alone once again with Kray, who settles back into his seat. Galo asks what happened to the engine and Kray mumbles it was a false alarm, yet thankful the alarms are working as they should.

Kray notices Galo’s mood and says he looks a lot better, asking if something good happened. Galo, remembering he needs to look destroyed, gets a good sense of that as he lies to Kray that Aina really cheered him up earlier, but the fact remains that Lio will be gone from his life. Kray says he doesn’t completely understand where he’s coming from but that he’ll get over it with time. He has plenty of other mers he can care for, one less is not the end of the world.

Galo then asks Kray, very carefully, if humans can turn into mers if they drink their blood. On account of Kray just telling him that mers can turn into humans. Kray gives him a shifty look and says no, that’s impossible. This confuses Galo to high hell as Kray gets up wanting to look Galo over. Just then, the doors open as Lucia alongside Varys trudge in with their own buckets, splashing the bed and some of Galo on congratulation for not being torn to shreds!

This keeps happening for the rest of the day, where one or several Ocean Rescue members spend their breaks checking up on Galo and Kray. They bring all sorts of embarrassing gifts and take the opportunity to ask the Captain dozens of questions or propose new ideas for the ship. By the time evening rolls around and Galo is given the okay to be discharged Kray is already up and out, wishing Galo a good night and to take it easy the next day.

The entire team comes to get Galo and wheels him back to his room, with Galo asking why they stopped in so much. Aina says Galo is a horrible liar so if they left him all by himself with Kray for too long he’d figure something out. Remi then hands Galo a drawn-up receipt of clothing he had to buy Lio and states he wants that money and extra for hiding him in his room and babysitting him. Never before had another man’s dick touched his bed and now he’s gotta burn his covers.

Galo tells him to get over it and no, he’s not paying extra but he’ll reimburse him for the clothes. Lucia lets him know that Lio has already been moved to his room so by the time they unlock the door and open it he finds Lio kneeling atop the bed. The moment their eyes meet Lio scrambles off the bed and jumps into his lap, Galo laughing and saying he missed him too. Looking over his clothes, he tells Remi he’s not paying for what looks like a nightmare at the tourist shop. Is that his own face on that shirt?

Lucia says they thought he’d like having Lio decked in his own merchandise from his shows, push the wheelchair in, and that they’ll be back tomorrow morning to check on them. They close the door as Galo struggles to get Lio off him so he can properly lock the door.

Lio keeps saying his name, eager to get back to where they left off as Galo goes for another round of trying to gather more information from Lio. It fails, Galo gives in under the pretense he’s taking this stupid merchandise off his body and they spend the rest of the night getting to know each other _very_ well.

The next morning Galo wakes up alone in bed, fearing that Lio was captured in the night as he hears a strange noise come from the bathroom. He enters in to find Lio up and completely stuffed in his tiny bath with half of his tail out. The water is still running, having now flooded the floor as Lio chirrups and slaps his tail, happy to see him. Galo freaks out even more and turns off the bath, calling Lio a home-wrecker as he begins cleaning up the bathroom. He asks why he left him in the night as Lio keeps trying to take his hand, Galo relenting and allowing him to take more blood. As the water drains from the open tub Lio shifts back into his human form, crawling out and pressing up against his back, repeating his name.

After cleaning up his bathroom, he tries asking Lio why he was able to turn into a mer, to which Lio gives him a solemn look. He opens his mouth and points to his tongue, making odd noises and closes his lips. That makes no sense to Galo.

Frustrated, still left with not a lot of answers, he figures the least they can do is get breakfast. He keeps some of the stuff Remi bought, like the beanie over his ears and the face mask to hide his cheek scales. But he dresses him in one of his winter shirts and hides the rest in the pants that he buckles to the last hole. Lio keeps trying to take the beanie off as Galo has to keep stuffing it down his head, leaving after he’s dressed out into the main shopping center of the Parnassus.

Lio clings to Galo as he shows him around, pointing out different stores or what various items are. Eventually, Lio picks up and starts pointing at things, getting Galo to tell him about them. They stop at a small café were Galo uses a menu with pictures to get Lio to pick something, taking both their choices back to his room to eat. Lio eats his omelet with gusto, stopping every time he burns his mouth as Galo tries to help him not choke on his food. He surmises this is kind of like a date, if you think about it, saying he enjoys Lio’s company and hopes maybe they can do some more of these.

Ocean Rescue shows up to check on Galo, who fills them in on most of what’s happened, obviously excluding the explicit stuff. Lucia properly asks for an explanation of what happened yesterday as Galo doesn’t really know what to tell her. He tells them what Kray told him and then remembers soon after he wasn’t supposed to tell anyone.

Remi promises they’ll keep it a secret, but it’s not like they don’t believe him as Lio is living proof of that. Lucia surmises that it must work the other way as well, and asks Galo if he’s tasted Lio’s blood. He admits he did in a crazy stunt following the same line of logic, but that Kray dismissed it as impossible. Lucia doubts it, Deus probably didn’t tell him everything from his mer research and then asks if he’s come in contact with water and changed back. He didn’t when he cleaned up the bathroom, confusing the group even more.

Galo asks them if they’ve gotten any leads as to where the rouge mer is, but Varys steps in that they went through all the mers on the ship and none of them held a candle to how massive the one attacking Galo was. Lucia off-handedly states that they got a missing worker who used to man the water reserves and that Sea Force is more occupied with finding him. It’s then that Aina steps in, begging the question of if the mer was somehow able to get free and attacked the worker. It could be still on the ship looking for another chance to attack Galo and Lio. Lucia calls herself a dummy for not thinking of it sooner. Remi asks what they should do about this as Lio speaks up again in a very angry tone.

“Kray.”

The others turn to him as he repeats the phrase, squishing his omelet in between his fingers. Lio’s right, they should bring this up with Kray. Maybe he’ll keep a lookout for any suspicious figures roaming the Parnassus. The others are astonished Lio is picking up words as Galo isn’t, shouldn’t he understand? Lucia sees Galo is beyond helping as Remi asks how a subterranean creature should know and understand English, moreso how to even speak it. Oh. So _that’s_ why Lio’s been so silent.

They decide Galo should be the one to talk to Kray about the mysterious figure. They still can’t, however, figure out why Lio was running around at night when he can’t tell them. From the way Galo described those nights it seems like he was searching for something. Galo asks Lucia what’s in the engine room and Lucia tells him uh, an engine? She’s been in there plenty of times, nothing weird about it.

Galo tries asking Lio again who gives him another frustrated gaze. He says something else instead.

“Meis. Gueira.”

They recognize the names and Galo asks if Lio wants to see him, which he affirms. The squadron head down to the mer level with Lio in the middle, trying to keep him sheltered from anyone else noticing him. They keep to the training room as Galo and Lucia go to fetch the two mers and dump them into the tank. They seem agitated till they spot Lio, who runs over and almost decks the glass. Galo is warmed seeing Lio light up with his kind, figuring he probably missed them as Lio soon scampers up to the edge. He grabs Galo’s hand and holds it to the water as he snaps it back, telling Lio they can’t just change all the mers into humans.

Lio huffs and tries again but he pulls back, asking his friends if they can give a hand. If he keeps giving up blood he’s going to die of blood loss. Remi and Lucia are the only two to begrudgingly volunteer, with Remi muttering they better not die from whatever infectious disease these guys have. They offer their hands as Meis and Gueira swim up, each taking a finger and trying to be as polite as they can sucking out blood. With just a small amount taken everyone backs up from Lio fanning his arms out as one by one, the mers pull themselves up onto the ledge and let the water fall off their bodies. Before long they’re left with two other naked pale ass men. Meis is sporting long dark hair and a huge patch of scales on his right side of his face along with finned ears, while Gueira keeps his chompers along with two huge patches on his shoulder blades and his slit pupils.

Both try getting up and almost fall back into the water as Lio takes their hands, pulling them in for a tight hug that they reciprocate. Remi remarks they look like best friends and wonders if perhaps they all knew each other before boarding the Parnassus. Galo likes to think that; the ties of friendship are strong.

Lio starts pushing Meis forward, speaking in his native tongue but none of that transfers into English. Mei perplexingly stares at Galo and the rest and back to Lio, seeming equally confused as Lio says something else that somehow makes sense to Meis. But by then Varys interrupts and states they have to clock on soon. The rest hurry, Lucia telling Galo not to worry, she’ll clock him on and to hide the boys. Remi shouts before Galo can even ask no, not his room, so Galo manages to sneak the three back up to his room. He leaves with them some hidden snacks and the rest of their breakfast, turning on the TV for them. They try to follow him out but Galo pulls Lio aside and tells him they have to stay there at least until he comes back. For safety measures, he locks the door before exiting and hopes for the best.

By the time lunch rolls around Lucia accompanies Galo up to his room to find it completely wrecked. The covers are everywhere, there are large gashes in his door and on the walls, frames down on the ground, but the TV is still going. Lio rushes out of the bathroom and over to Galo as Meis and Gueira look over from being completely enamored with the TV.

As Lio is biting his hand in anger for leaving him, though not drawing blood, neither expect Meis to suddenly speak up, proclaiming ‘boss’ at Lio and tiny boss to Galo. He takes slight offense over being called ‘tiny’ but Lucia is more impressed that Meis is already forming words. She suspects he might be a quick learner and asks if she can borrow him for the day. With luck, he might be the bridge they need to get over this language barrier.

Galo doesn’t mind, he’s not his dad, but Gueira soon gets up and imposes himself in front of Meis. Lio hisses and it makes Gueira back down, but Lucia doesn’t take offense, saying if the big guy wanted to follow he could. She promises to bring them back and that they’ll meet at the aquarium after dark, as everyone collectively crowding into Galo’s room doesn’t make for a great secret hideout.

As the two leave with Lucia, Galo notices his break is up but Lio won't’ let him go. He tries leaving him again and gets another nasty hiss to the point where Lio when puts the beanie on himself. Galo, knowing if he left Lio here again there’d be even worse damage, takes Lio along but makes him swear, to the best of his knowledge, not to cause any ruckus.

The moment they head back into the square Galo is met with tv stations tuned in for the news with a detailed sketch-up of Lio. The announcer warns all civilians that this person is a wanted criminal and should anyone find the perpetrator to call Sea Force immediately. Galo seethes with anger at the blatant lies to then witness Kray coming down the strip. He hides Lio in a nearby store, using the finger again to shush him as he comes back out in time to be greeted.

He confronts Kray about what the hell is this announcement and Kray apologizes if it might have opened up any old wounds. You see, Kray just wants to ensure that they’ve successfully gotten rid of the murderous mer. They’re a bit tricky to get rid of. Galo tries getting through to Kray again that Lio wasn’t the one who attacked him and tells him the real murderer is among them. The disappearance of the water reserve worker is because of the mer that attacked him and that they should be furiously searching for that guy. Run the huge-ass bit mark he has on his shoulder against the rest of the mers. Kray grows cold and asks how Galo knew about the worker, as that was vital information that hasn’t been leaked to other divisions yet. In fact, Galo has been acting stranger since he left to check on the engine room.

Galo tries to make up an excuse but Kray cuts him off, saying he doesn’t actually care. If he’s doing his own snooping he can go ahead and play Detective, just that he needs to follow orders from now on. He might run into his murderer if he isn’t careful. As Kray is pulled away by Biar, his secretary, that he’s running late for a meeting he tells Galo one last thing; he’s installed security cameras in all the mer rooms; to ensure they catch Lio or anyone else trying to do something stupid. He wishes Galo a good day and heads off.

Once Kray is out of earshot, Galo runs back for Lio to find him extremely miffed, huffing and hissing. Galo apologizes as he gets on the line with Lucia and quickly informs her about the security cameras. Lucia seems surprised by this news and thanks him, saying she’ll make sure their morning was erased. Galo asks if they should hold their meeting elsewhere but Lucia ensures him she’ll have a loop by that time prepped and ready.

The walkie is soon taken away by Lio as he marches Galo out of the shopping center and back down the employee stairs. Galo complains all the way, saying he has to get back to work but Lio leads them, through Galo’s cooperation, back into the aquarium that is now temporarily closed thanks to last night.

Galo tells Lio they really shouldn’t be in there, eyeing the empty and broken tank and being flashed back to nearly dying by some stranger’s hand. He shivers as Lio takes him to another large tank full of fish, shedding off his clothes and trying to do the same for Galo. He complies, asking if Lio wants or, needs to take a swim as Lio enters into the water. As he resurfaces its in his mer form, holding up his hand and nudging it between Galo’s teeth. He chuckles, telling Lio he can just ask, but slowly falls into the water to take another kiss. He bites his lip again, telling him his blood tastes gross before he can’t speak any longer. The shift is less painful than the first time, letting Lio guide him down to the sandy bottom past the dozens of other marine life.

They swim around for a while, noticing Lio making little adjustments to the way he swims or how he holds himself. Galo shows him all the little spaces and decorations, loving the way Lio’s eyes light up but hating the way they dim. He wants to ask if he’s missing home, where he and his friends are from, knowing he can’t. It’s at this point Galo begins questioning if all these attractions, all the help they’re supplying the mers is really good for them. Even large tanks can’t compare to the ocean.

Lio tries speaking to him but Galo now feels on the opposite end, unable to do anything but shrug and shake his head. Lio is insistent, however, repeating phrases and letting Galo try them out, saying them over and over till he can get the inflictions down.

He also notices then the nasty bite mark on his side, the same one he carries on his neck as Lio seems to zone in on it too. He tangles around Galo as he holds his chest, scowling at the bite but licks over it, making soothing sounds that ebb nicely over his ears. Galo tries to show his appreciation when he feels Lio’s teeth as he bites down through the scales. Galo spasms and cries out but Lio keeps his grasp firm, continuing the soothing noises and licking at the freshly opened wound. Once the wound stops hurting, merely throbbing in pain does Lio offer his back, tilting his neck to the same position. Galo refuses at first as Lio grows more insistent, almost pleading with him. He’d never seen this nature with mers before, wondering if this was some sort of custom and decides to swallow his pride and trust that Lio knew what was best. He makes a new mark, having to will himself to bite through the scales and cradle Lio through it. He tries making the reassuring noises back till Lio turns around to capture his lips again.

Content and peaceful, not having to worry about much but each other. Lio leads him off to one of the bigger caves of the attraction, where he learns all about his new body. They nap, cuddle, and by the time Galo starts questioning how long they’ve been in there, while Lio is picking seashells on the sandy floor to give to Galo, he notices colors atop the water.

He surfaces to his friends on the ledge, Aina holding a towel and asking if he enjoyed ditching work. Galo fails to apologize as Aina tells him to stop making whale noises and that he’ll just do double time the next time they wanna skip. Lio surfaces as well, causing Gueira, now clothed, to break from the group and splash into the water. The shredded remains of the clothes float up as Lio is pulled underwater, left to wrestle with his companion.

Galo is tempted to chase after when he suddenly feels his tail clip, opening his mouth for a huge intake of air as he reverts back. Galo looks to his normal hands and doesn’t understand why he changed back, super confused now on what is going on. That’s when Meis speaks up, saying his time was up.

Lucia, very proud and very smug, tells the group that she also ditched work to fill the mer’s head with as much knowledge of the English language as she could. However, she doesn’t think it’s enough to truly translate as Varys helps Galo out of the water, supplying him with a towel.

Lucia suspects it’ll probably take her at least a week before Meis is speaking full sentences, and the mer seems pretty content to just listen to them. Galo voices his own concern about Lio as the team acknowledges they all saw the news earlier. Lio refuses to leave Galo’s side these days, less he destroy his room. Remi says he should be fine if he covers up but Galo is more concerned if Lio sees Galo again or something upsets him. He also believes Lio has to get back into the water at least a few times a day. That’s when it hits Galo that oh shit, they’ve been swimming in the aquarium for most of the day and are probably on camera, to which Lucia waves her hand to not worry about that. She’s a master of loops and never been caught before!

The doors suddenly burst open with a squadron of Sea Force on the hunt, Vulcan taking the lead with a jeering tone of looking for any rats. Galo’s teammates scramble as he’s pulled back into the water of his own volition, Meis jumping in after as they hurry into the cavern. Meis and Gueira hide elsewhere, Galo struggling for air as Lio allows him another taste of his lips. In moments he’s back to his mer form, bunched closely against him as he can hear his heartbeat franticly. The world outside is only murky as much as Vulcan’s taunting.

He can feel the rage emanating off of Lio, having a funny feeling that they weren’t going to be hiding for long. No words that he could say would break through to him, attempting to whine and get his attention, but his focus is too much where the Sea Force’s back is turned. Doing the only thing he can, he brushes cheeks with Lio, continuing to try and express his sadness until Lio’s eyes settle on him. They grow softer until Lio is clinging tightly to him again, staying still until the lights above the tank turn off and long after.

They only surface again when Galo notices the same colors, poking his head out along with Lio. They explain they hid around the aquarium as Lucia is pissed her plan is in the trash. She can make loops if there’s not supposed to be any patrols. Once they see they didn’t show up they’ll be caught red-handed. She complains she’ll be up all night editing the footage and they agree it’d be best to stay out of the aquarium.

Meeting adjourned, Galo tries pulling up and out of the water but feels Lio holding onto one of his spines. He gives him an almost upset look as Galo keeps pulling, feeling Lio not be too insistent. Using the towels and this time Aina and Varys being squeamish about their blood, the group of towel-clad men goes back to Galo’s room for the night. He flips again seeing all the damage, asking how he’s going to explain this but none of the mers seem to care. Gueira and Meis take the floor, even when Galo offered to give them his bed, because soon after Lio is leading him back to it. They situate together as Galo wishes he could just…talk to Lio. Really get to know him. Lio seems to reflect that same frustration and both fall asleep.

Galo, hearing his faucet running upon waking up, prepares himself for the worst and yuup, there’s a pile of mers in his tiny ass bathroom. Lio is back to taking the bathtub as Meis and Gueira, much too big for the room, are awkwardly tangled in limbs on the floor. Galo needs several cups of coffee this morning.

Getting them up and back to human as well as cleaning his bathroom, he decides he’ll have to risk using one of the mer rooms and beg Lucia to loop the footage. The moment they get down the hall he’s stopped by Ignis, whom Galo asks why the hell he’s up at… 3am?! Galo feels almost defeated as Ignis just tells him to follow.

Down the stairs, Galo is taken past the aquarium through a hall where he’s not seeing any cameras. Ignis says that he figured the boys would have to get some exercise and revert back and came up with an idea after the meeting. He opens a door and shows Galo a giant ass tank with much duct-tape on the glass. Ignis apologizes, it’s the same walls of the event tank, but he figured no one would be the wiser if he took it from the disposable room. He created this makeshift pool all last night, even threw a couple of rubber ducks in for lack of scenery. Meis and Gueira are already scrambling up and into the pool as Galo can’t thank Ignis enough. He says not to worry about it but that he’ll see him sharp and awake for work. Right now is a very dangerous time for Galo to get caught skipping work. Ignis can only cover for him so much.

Galo salutes Ignis and that he’ll be so ready for work and Ignis leaves them to get his own rest. He lets Lio take him up to the edge of the tank, with Lio already turning back after a quick dive. Galo stays content to just keep his feet in and watch them swim around till Lio resurfaces, tugging on his fingers. He shouldn’t, but Lio’s big cute eyes get to him and well…what’s the harm…

Come his work shift Galo is pretty tired, with Lio keeping him up most of the morning to swim and play. Lio still stays close by his side as Ignis assigns duties for them for the day. Galo is assigned up top to monitor the pool with Aina, who happily accepts the assignment. Meis was already plucked away by Lucia and Gueira didn’t seem too keen on leaving the tank that morning. Fine by him.

Manning the lifeguard station is a little harder than normal when Lio keeps trying to climb up into his lap, but with a few social cues and reaffirmation, he stays on the ground by his lifeguard seat. Many of the regulars chastise Galo for wearing a shirt, saying they come out to see him put on a display as he tells them he’ll have to refrain, doctor’s orders. Totally not because he has a second bite mark. He thankfully keeps far enough away to not get splashed, though occasionally he’ll see Lio trying to take his beanie off and noticing him keeping it on instead. During his lunch break, he takes a lone seat by the boat’s edge where he tells Lio he’s proud of him for keeping his beanie on. Lio takes to sitting in his lap and giving a few kisses, which Galo happily accepts and teases that Lio was never this sweet before and wonders what’s up. They in some sort of honeymoon phase? They eat their lunch in relative silence as Lio then points up to the sky. Galo tells him about the clouds, the sky, and the sun, realizing this is probably the closest Lio’s even been to it. He tells him he’ll have to show him the moon when it’s out, how he’ll love it.

Lunch break over, Lio takes his hand but is guiding him away from the pool, back to the stairs. Galo doesn’t follow, telling him they have to get back to work, leaving Lio lightly huffy. He tugs harder but Galo resists, going back to his station. He feels Lio bite and scolds him for doing that, asking why he’s trying to snack on him now, but Lio only wipes the bit of blood off his lip, licks it off his hand, and begrudgingly goes to his seat. The afternoon is quieter from Lio, who spends all his time glaring at Galo from his lounging chair. Aina is off on the other side of the ship announcing for a battleship championship, which has pulled a lot of the crowd away. Enough so that no one is really taken an interest in the pool. Galo starts to feel that itch to get back in the water, the sun is especially grueling today. On normal occasions, he’d just hop into the pool to cool off, but that would be too risky of an invitation if Lio took it.

With ten minutes left on his shift, knowing the next person to replace him always comes earlier, he decides it wouldn’t hurt to leave a little early. He hurries off with Lio, who seems thankful they are leaving back down to the hidden pool. The water feels especially nice, complaining that he’ll start getting a farmer’s tan with that stupid shirt. Lio doesn’t seem to mind his obviously huge problems as Galo turns back into a mer. Their little blissful play is absent as Lio takes charge, ordering Gueira over, who seemed equally bored now springing into action. He wasn’t expecting to roughhouse with the giant tuna, pinned to the sandy floor in very little time. Gueira gets up, they try again, Galo gets pinned. Lio would move in after ever pin to adjust Galo’s position or say something that Galo knew was a tease. When he wasn’t getting his ass handed to him by Gueira, who was more than happy to take the win, Lio was pointing to objects and giving them sounds, asking Galo to repeat them. By the time Meis was dropped back into the tank, Lucia giving him a hard time and to have a goodnight, he was too exhausted to make it back to his room. He falls asleep in the tank only to wake up in the early morning on the metal grid with Lio by his side.

The next few days this becomes almost routine. Wake up at an ungodly early time, train and learn phrases, go to work with Lio, eat lunch, sneak off early for more training and learning, sleep. After a few days, Lio begins teaching him how to manipulate the water around them, to create currents, and turn still water into waves. There’s a moment in the cafeteria, as his teammates eat their lunch, where Galo tries showing off his new, insert dramatic movement of arms, water powers! Nothing happens, forming some amusement from his team as Galo keeps trying till Lio levitates the water out of his cup. The rest are impressed while Galo pouts that he stole his thunder. Lucia speculates they didn’t know mers could do that, but they never had a mer get on land and try.

Galo speaks for Lio in that mers could always do this and the more that help the larger and more powerful the water is. Oh, so Galo can speak to Lio now, Varys asks? Galo grins, nope! He just believes that, to which his theory gets immediately chucked out the window.

where Aina asks if Aquaman can stop speaking fish. Galo, sitting at the end across from Lio, where Lio was still teaching him noises, tells Aina she’s just jealous because she can’t hit on any of the hot mers. She gags, saying she’d rather kiss a fis, wait, and Galo laughs it off. Lucia asks if Galo is learning anything useful and he says he’s learning what things are, but only how to say it. When Lio isn’t pointing to something and identifying it he doesn’t understand. Varys speaks up about if Galo is going to be around for game night, where their team meets in the board game room after hours to have some fun. Galo declines the offer, saying he’s so close to beating Gueira and has been thinking about that all day. Next time.

With Galo’s shift over, he bids his team farewell and leaves with Lio saying something that actually gets Galo laughing. Aina pouts that she’d been looking forward to kicking his ass in Jenga but blah blah whatever. Varys dubs Aina jealous and she retorts she’s not, but she does think Galo is spending a lot of time with Lio. Like, is he a human or a mer now? Lucia covers her eyes, at least they only hear about it. She brought back Meis a little later than normal to them…you know. The rest of the team gags but you know, Aina asks tentatively… who was like…the bottom? Or, could they even? Would it be side-to-side and you know what forget it.

It’s times like these where Aina’s best friend instincts kick in and she decides, after getting approval to use some vacation time, that it’s time to meet the boyfriend. She catches up with Galo and Lio and asks if she can borrow Lio for the afternoon. Both are pretty confused and Galo doesn’t see why she can’t but asks what she’s planning. Noooothing.

Lio, more hesitant to leave, abides and lets Galo be off, but not without a quick smooch. Aina dramatically gags and takes Lio away back to the shopping center. She can tell Lio has his guard up, scanning his eyes almost everywhere and turning back every few seconds. She tells him to relax, she’s got his back, and asks if he knows her name. He nods and repeats it, surprising Aina enough to where she asks if he’s been joshing them this entire time. Lio gives her a befuddled look and knows she asked for too much, telling him not to worry about it.

Taking Lio to an ice cream shop, she treats him to his own cone as she gets a sundae as they sit on the edge of a water fountain, trying to start conversations yet unable to keep anything going between the language barrier and Lio inhaling his ice cream. She does get to see him have brain freeze, giggling. Centering her conversations around Galo gets Lio’s attention and him saying his name, which is a start. She boils down her questions to basic yes or no, making sure he understood what either meant. Does he like Galo? Does he think he’s hot? Is his smile cute? Would he say he’s an idiot and needs to spend game night with them?

The way Lio responds so happily brings a smile to Aina’s face, admitting she once had a crush on Galo when he first joined Ocean Rescue but he was also like, never wearing a shirt and constantly getting wet. Once he told her he was gay she backed off and they’ve been best friends ever since. Lio repeats the word with a curious tone, so Aina, being the wizened soul she is, explains what a friend is. She then says she hopes she and Lio can be friends, but Lio shakes his head. No friends. Aina takes a little offense, what is he suddenly jealous now? Did she have to explain what gay meant? But Lio shakes his head again. He takes some of the melted icecream to draw out a stick figure and what appears to be a mer, then draws a diagonal line between both.

Mers and Humans can’t be friends, huh? Aina, sticking her spoon in her mouth full of hot fudge, admits that’s pretty hypocritical of Lio to say that when he’s dating a human. Lio doesn’t seem too upset, suddenly then apologizing. Aina takes it on the nose, forgiving Lio for his conservative ways and yes, she’ll be his friend. They’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other, again, Lio shakes his head. He murmurs the words home and Galo, almost seeming conflicted about that till he notices his cone sprung a leak.

As he leans down to fix the mess a squadron of Sea Force surrounds them, Vulcan of course manning the team with tranquilizer guns pointed right at them. He laughs and says they got an anonymous call about seeing the little drowned rat and whaddya know, maybe today won’t be boring as hell. Aina tries bluffing at first but Lio drops his cone and throws his arms down, arching all the water from the fountain into a powerful wave that smashes into Sea Force.

Firmly grasping Aina’s paddleboard, he charges towards the offenders, using it as a shield from the darts all the way up to Vulcan. Lio kicks up onto the column next to Vulcan and delivers a blow to the face with his foot, knocking some spit out as the man stumbles back. He unloads a flurry of darts as Lio whips the board in front of him and throws a clenched fist up, causing the puddle under Vulcan’s feet to slam him up into the air.

Hearing Aina’s cry, he notices the woman with arms up near the fountain with one guard trained on her. He rushes back and with a spin on his heels, wraps the water around them into a giant slithering serpent, spraying a pressurized jet of water at the offender. Aina notices Lio keeps a bubble around them so as to not touch the water, but she can tell from the sheen of sweat that he’s struggling in this form. The massive water dragon causes a panic in the shopping center as Aina takes Lio’s hand as he swipes the tail back to send a few more Sea Force into the fountain, telling him they have to go.

Gathering up Aina over his shoulder, the dragon curls tightly around the fountain, plumping up into a massive orb that rockets off up into one of the higher levels overlooking the center. Midway a dart pierces Lio’s arm, offsetting the propulsion as they both fall down onto the third floor. The water crashes into them as Aina scrambles to get up, hearing Vulcan jest about coming to claim his meal while Lio is having a seizure on the ground. His legs are pulled together as scales bleed up over his skin, Aina struggling to keep Lio’s head up. Sucking it up, she pushes her fingers into his mouth and pierces them onto his teeth, halting the transformation once she pulls Lio away from the puddle. Clothes torn, Lio is hardly able to keep awake as Aina secures him over her back and dashes across the floor.

They’re met up with Sea Force guards along the way but thanks to conveniently placed water fountains, Lio musters enough strength to whip at any attacks or shield them. Aina keeps Lio awake by talking about Galo, how he needs him to stay awake for him, and also asks if he can do anything else in his form. He shows his fingertips and rubs them together, forming a spark just as she rounds the corner and takes a shot from Vulcan.

Legs quivering, vision doubling, she sees the elevator down as Vulcan stands in their way, grinning about how Kray wanted the bastard alive, but he can always say there was an accident. With the last of her strength. Aina gains some strength and hurls Lio at Vulcan, yelling to discharge. He latches onto Vulcan’s chest and expels such a powerful voltage that his suit fries and he collapses onto the wall. Aina rushes over and picks back up Lio, falling, but managing to drag them both to the elevator, where she uses her keycard to take her down to the employee levels. She calls in on her walkie-talkie that they’re both down in the elevator, need help, and passes out the moment she sees the doors open and Galo’s big dumb hair poke in.

With Aina and Lio, rapidly changing back into a mer, down for the count, Galo secures Aina as the rest of their friends swarm in to help. They manage to get Lio safely back to the hideout tank, where Gueira and Meis are more than distressed to see him. They rest him easily onto the sandy floor to rest as Aina is held by Varys. Galo blames himself for letting the two go out as Remi tries to console Galo; none of them knew this would happen. Ignis then comes in with bad news; the whole ship is on red alert thanks to Lio’s stunt. They will more than likely be checking every room as Galo flips.

Ignis orders Varys to head out and return Aina to her room and stay with her while Remi and Lucia are going to go up top and try to keep the peace. The rest of the squadron heads out, Galo ready for his order, but is relieved when Ignis tells him to stay here with Lio. He comes up the steps and asks Meis if he can understand them, to which a shifty and suspecting Meis says yeah, he’s learned enough. He also doesn’t trust him for what happened to their boss and would rather have him leave while they stay. Ignis says he’s their one shot at not being immediately discovered as Meis gestures to Gueira and tiny boss, they’re good enough.

Galo tells him to stop calling him tiny boss as Meis asks if he wants to be called…ah, what was the word again….Queen? Galo, even more offended, asks if he thinks this is funny, as Meis tells him he finds no humor in this.

Does he not understand? He has courted their boss, or, their King? Meis is confused on the difference between the two as Galo feels like he got slapped in the face. He tells Galo and inadvertently Ignis that all ocean-dwellers travel in packs. They are apart of the Fotia pack, led by none other than their boss, who sees to their safety and health. It is the boss’s job to secure feeding grounds and find shelter. Galo has been courting their boss and has become his mate, making him the tiny boss, or second in command to the Fotia pack. He is now seen as one of them to any ocean-dweller.

Galo is finding it hard to grasp the situation; sure, they spent a lot of time together and had some nice moments and now Meis is telling him he’s the boss of an entire pack of fish? Meis corrects him, he’s not really the boss, boss still holds that authority. But being tiny boss does hold some respectable power. Meis also points to the freshly made bite-marks, a common sign of mates. Galo is conflicted about knowing all this, stating he does love Lio and wants to be with him but it feels a bit too fast. Meis counteracts saying it took forever their time, watching the two dance around each other was painful.

Ignis then speaks up, asking what Lio has been looking for and Meis bluntly states the others. Since their capture—and Galo stops him immediately, saying they saved their lives. Meis bares his fangs, recalling that it was the land-dwellers who attacked first. He, alongside his mate and boss, were guiding the pack to a new territory when they were conquered and divided by a rouge mer and a barrage of land-dwellers. They were beaten and cut and taken aboard, Meis gestures around them, whatever this is. Many escaped, including boss, but now that boss has infiltrated the time to free their pack is nigh.

Galo doesn’t understand, asking how many were in their pack. Hundreds. Galo feels blindsided; _hundreds_? There’s maybe less than twenty mer aboard this boat but Meis tells him he’s wrong. They’re here, hidden somewhere, doing who knows what to them. Boss could hear them and got close when the lights turned and they had to flee.

Galo says they were near the engine room as Ignis states there are no mers in there, to which Meis scoffs at. He doesn’t believe him, their boss’ hearing is always accurate. He can’t trust what Ignis says as he crosses his arms; hypocritical when they were the ones who voiced otherwise at Galo’s attack that it wasn’t Lio. If anything, they should be the distrusting ones.

Gueira surfaces just to hiss and stir the currents as Meis dangerously states that the ocean-dweller was not of their own pack. It walks among them in bright flashy clothes and has foolishly made them all his unseeing pack. It’s then that the two quiet as Lio pops his head out. Galo can tell he’s not doing so hot, reaching a drenched arm up as Galo takes it. The little gesture makes him sink to his knees, telling Lio he needs to stop worrying him to death. Lio shares a soft smile but it turns cold as he barks something and Meis translates; before he leaves with his pack safe and sound, boss swears to kill the ocean-dweller who harmed his pack and his mate. They openly attacked him, ergo, they are inviting their death.

Galo stops wait, Lio knows who it was? Meis turns to Lio, who continues to protectively hold Galo. Meis says the one who Galo shields Lio from time and again; a monster they call Kray.

The sudden banging on the door tightens Lio’s grip as Galo forces himself up. He stands tall with just puffed as Ignis commands the mers to hide. Lio is the only one who doesn’t, hissing, but Galo eventually gets Lio to slink off into the alcove.

A Sea Force grunt awaits them at the door, Galo knowing they see him as Ignis takes the conversation outside, closing the door behind him with a small indicator to lock the door. Galo creeps up to do just that, sighing, and heading back to the tank. He should go back to his room. It’d be less suspicious. But the moment he sees Lio poke his head up he caves.

When Galo wakes up, he’s lying uncomfortably atop the water on the metal grid ledge. Lio’s head and arms rest over his stomach, though he wakes up as soon as Galo does. He offers him a loving smile as he gives him another lingering kiss that Galo knows is because he wants him to bite. Galo doesn’t, refusing the offer when he hears Meis question why he would deny the opportunity. He sees Meis sitting on the railing, giving a quick apology for having a little nibble, but figured Galo would need him again.

Galo sits up and props his back on the railing, trying to work out the million new cricks as Meis tells him today would be their final day there. They can’t wait any longer; they have to rescue their pack. They will need Galo’s full help to pull this off. Galo, saddened at the thought, agrees he’ll help them find their pack but that he doesn’t believe Meis that Kray was the one who tried to kill him.

Meis tells him it’s not bright to question their boss, as the information came straight from him. Galo still doesn’t believe it, not understanding why he would try to kill him in the first place. Meis gives him an incredulous look; because you’re a threat. Both he and their boss, but none of it sticks with Galo. He asks if he can tell Lio some stuff for him, and Meis agrees to.

Galo then goes on to draft a lovely speech of their time spent together as he stares into Lio’s eyes, about how wonderful everything has been and that this all feels like one big dream, but that he knows it couldn’t last forever. He will make sure Lio and his pack safely get off the ship and that he’ll never forget him.

Meis listens…then says he won’t translate it. Galo gets upset at why the hell not. Because he’s coming with? Galo, stunned, didn’t remember saying that as Meis gets off the railing to sit beside him. He is their tiny boss, their boss’ mate, and one of the pack. Of course Galo is coming with; it’d be sending their boss to an early death if he didn’t. Ocean-dwellers mate for life, and in the loss of a mate it can cause the other to become so heartbroken they perish.

Galo eyes back to Lio, who he swears is picking up more than he lets on. His expression is pained and silently pleading, holding Galo’s hands in his webbed ones. Galo states he doesn’t want to leave Lio but he can’t stay a mer forever. And Meis agrees with him partially. Only a couple of drops of blood won’t keep the transformation even through a sun cycle. But if he partakes in blood every day, then he can stay as one of them forever.

Galo openly rejects that idea, the very thought of drinking Lio’s blood every day was both nauseating and horrifying. Meis tells him that there is another way; Lio could create a bloodstone. It would take several sun and moon cycles, but it is forbidden knowledge that is passed down to ocean-dweller leaders. Any land-dweller who ingests the stone will stay as one of them without the need of any more blood.

Galo stares back at Lio, who chirrups something and brushes his cheek. Meis translates, stating their boss is begging for Galo to stay as one of them and that he loves him so much. Galo asks about his friends, the Parnassus, his whole life here, and is surprised when Meis speaks up for him. Lio responds back, that his friends can’t follow, they belong to the land-dwellers. He will make sure Galo is always happy and smiling, and that he knows the other ocean-dwellers favor him. They will be his new family.

It completely tears Galo up inside, feeling like he has to choose as Lio reassures him no harm will come to the land-dwellers. He will avenge them both, free their blood and leave this nightmare together. Galo has already saved him so many times, it’s his turn to save him. Galo doesn’t want Lio to murder Kray as Lio is firm, stating he has to now. He cannot forgive a creature that not only attacks and harms his pack but his beloved mate. He won’t allow Kray alone with Galo again and he will keep Galo’s hands free of his blood. Let him stain his own.

Galo refuses to let Lio go through with this as Lio states he cannot stop him. They will find the pack first and then Lio will seek out Kray. He threatens to not give Lio anymore of his blood as Lio lightly hisses, asking if he is truly so heartless to let more of their kind be harmed under his power. Galo retorts they don’t even know where the other mers are or what Kray is doing with them.

Lio, fuming, reveals to him that the night when they fought, Kray had come down to openly mock him. He had already planned on murdering Galo that next day and pinning the blame on him. He’d make sure he couldn’t interfere, so when Lio saw him in the crowd, mocking him again, he couldn’t stand by and let him do as he pleased.

The news hits Galo hard, slumping against the railing as he doesn’t want to believe what Lio is saying. He asks him why Kray intended to murder him and Lio doesn’t know the full picture, simply believing that Kray sees them as a threat to his position. It’s enough to make Galo scream, questioning how he’d come to believe that they were going to overthrow him. None of it makes sense, none of it.

It nearly drives him to tears as Lio hoists himself farther up, trying to console Galo. He never meant to harm him that day, he never meant to scare him as he did. He was just as scared of losing him, feeling all hope was lost till he woke up to him in his beautiful form, racing back towards the beast.

They share a quiet tender moment as Galo notices Lio’s own tears. He tells him he’s okay, that they’re okay, that they will get through this. While still sick to his stomach thinking Kray would ever do such a thing, Lio asks if Galo believes him. He says he wants to, but it’s hard for him to. He’s not a man who would so easily sentence another, even if he tried murdering him, to death.

After some thinking, Galo asks Lio to promise to him that once the other mers are free they’ll go and leave the Parnassus alone. Lio asks about the they and Galo nods his head, they. Lio looks conflicted, hands gripping Galo’s tightly but makes whatever a promise is. There is only the briefest feeling of relief, part of him happy that he won’t have to say goodbye to Lio. But he will have to say goodbye.

Lio, Meis, and Gueira have a brief rejoicing of welcoming Galo into the pack, Lio persuading Galo back into the water to properly wrap around him. Galo asks Meis to translate again, stating he wants him to know how much he loves him. Lio merely makes a noise akin to a chuckle and that he’s known that for a while, but can’t wait till they can properly confess when Galo can speak their tongue.

The doors creak open, the group ready to dive down when they notice it’s Aina, Lucia, Remi, Varys, and Ignis. Galo’s mood sinks like a rock as they come over, relieved they didn’t get caught. Galo exits the water and sweeps Aina into a hug, saying he was worried sick! She explains that when she woke up Heris was watching over her, in fact, she almost couldn’t get out of bed this morning because she was hovering so close. But that doesn’t matter, she’s okay now. Aina remarks about Galo’s face and why it’s so long as Galo asks if the group wants to get some breakfast.

It being early enough, the employee cafeteria is quietly empty. Meis, Gueira, and Lio, all decked out in their disguises, eat everything but the table as Galo sits with his group nearby. They remark that Galo hasn’t touched his hashbrowns; he loves hashbrowns! Galo chuckles sadly that he does, or, did, causing some alarm in the group. They ask if it’s about what Meis said last night, about Kray being a mer and his attacker, and Galo admits that yeah, that’s weighing pretty heavy on his mind. Wait… Ignis fills Galo in that he spoke to the team that night. The rest of the group agrees, saying they all slept pretty terribly about the news, but it makes sense. Kray would be the only one who could cover up any incidents as big as a random mer that’s not registered in any of their databases or a missing worker.

Galo doesn’t want to believe it, picking at his food. He also doesn’t want to talk about it much, as there’s something bigger on his mind. Lucia asks what could be bigger than the person he looked up to trying to kill him? Galo gives her a glare, sighs, and tells them that he needs all their help today because Lio is going to free his pack. His friends all immediately agree, throwing him off guard. That was…way too easy. Ignis speaks up for the team, saying if there is something unethical happening inside the Parnassus with the mers, they wouldn’t want to stand with the person who is creating the crime. They’ll help Lio however they can until he’s off the ship.

Galo then faintly smiles. Not just Lio. Him as well. The rest of the group freak of what that means as Galo lays it out; he’s going with Lio. He’s going to make some sort of weird, freaky voodoo bloodstone that he’ll swallow, permanently changing him into a mer and they’ll go with the pack.

Aina asks if Galo put bleach in the tank and Galo gets upset, telling Aina this is really serious for him because he’s never going to see them again after today. Lucia points out that Galo seems more distraught than saddened, asking if he really is making this decision. Aina pipes up, saying Galo isn’t a mer, he’s a human! He belongs with them on the Parnassus.

Galo gets even more agitated and states he’s making his choice of his own free will. Mers mate for life, you know?! And he’s not going to let Lio die of some broken heart out in the ocean. The pack needs him just as much as Galo needs him. But fuck he’s going to miss hanging with his team, doing shows, his slightly-lumpy bed, these hashbrowns, this table— Galo stops when he feels tears come on, Aina joining his side as the rest of the team close in. They won't’ stop him if this is what he wants, but Ocean Rescue won’t ever be the same without his burning soul.

Galo chokes and wishes he could take them with him. The ocean is going to be so vast and big and he knows he’s going to find some cool shit that he’d know they’d love. Ignis says he speaks for the group in that they can’t follow him, they aren’t made for that kind of life, but that for as big as the ocean is, the opportunities to meet again are vast. They know this won’t be goodbye. And when they run across the Parnassus again they want Galo to tell them all about what he’s seen. He sobs, saying he won’t be able to talk to them anymore, to which Lucia expresses interest in making some sort of device that’ll let them understand him. They’ll find a way. They always have.

The group has their tearful goodbye till Galo feels another touching his back. It’s Lio, having wondered over to check up on him, concerned and brushing away his tears with his thumbs. Galo kisses Lio’s nose and tells him he’s just saying his goodbyes as Aina interjects and points at Lio, saying he better be a good husband to Galo or she’ll get in the submarine and kick his ass. Meis, still playing translator, assures the team that Galo will be taken care of and will go without wanting. Also, Galo tells Remi that in all reality, he probably got cheated on by a fish.

The two groups merge as Ignis asks Lio, but in reality, Meis, what plan they have for finding their pack. Lio responds as Meis begrudgingly talks for him, stating the only plan they can go off of is following the sounds of their screams. That doesn’t bode well for the team, Lucia butting in that they’ll be caught if they just do that. She can alter the camera footage to loop but she can’t do that for every room without throwing up some suspicion.

Lucia can get them as far as the engine room but they can’t all go together. Lucia says Galo wouldn’t be suspicious since she’d always send him on snack runs, but anyone else would trigger some red flags. Ignis agrees and states they should have some people on the outside for surveillance and asks for any volunteers. Varys goes first, admitting as fun as a breakout sounds, he is not the best at hiding or sneaking around. Remi then offers to help Varys, stating how they still have to keep up their appearance at work.

Ignis decides to accompany the group halfway and that they’ll be waiting on Lucia or Galo to call in to come down and assist. Aina gets ready for her role but Ignis flat out tells her she’s off the mission; she still needs to rest from yesterday. This pisses her off, Lio is up and just fine and dandy! Meis snorts, almost proud as he says it’d take more to down their boss, to which Lio smugly nods his head at.

The intercom sounds off above their heads for Galo Thymos to see Captain Foresight immediately. A surge of dread goes through Galo as he stands up, to which everyone else follows in trying to stop him. It’s gotta be because he stayed hidden last night and wasn’t in his room, trying to reason why it wouldn’t be an issue to go. But he’s soon roughly tugged over to the mers by Lio and Gueira, Meis denying him access to go to his death. They don’t have time; they have to go.

Breakfast is discarded as they break off, excluding Aina, who stubbornly follows the mer group. Ignis barks that her involvement is negated, go to work, but Aina stubbornly defies Ignis; if this is the last day they’re going to spend with Galo she’s not leaving his side. They steer clear of the elevators and start heading down the stairs only to be immediately caught by a stationed Sea Force member. The moment they spot Lio their gun is trained on him, soon followed by Meis and Gueira breaking from the group. Meis is like a blur down the stairs, dazing the guard with a quick punch to the chest before Gueira barrels on down and body-checks him into the wall, cracking the foundation.

Their careful fast-walk turns into a sprint as they dash down the stairs. Lucia is furiously typing on a tablet she keeps on hand, Galo asking if she’s doing the loop-de-loop and her bantering back that she would have if they hadn’t just beaten up a witness. It’s just a run now to the engine room, getting to the repair level. Galo punches in his code to get access denied, Aina figuring they’d deactivate his code at some point. Ignis knows he doesn’t have permission as Lucia steps on through to try hers and gets the same rejection. Locking _her_ out? Nah-uh, not happening. Furious fingers fly on her tablet, taking just a moment with the intensity rising hearing more guards come running down the stairs. She breaks back in and they all run inside, Galo slamming the door behind him and Lucia locking it down. Lio ditches the beanie and throws it away, ears splayed out and twitching. He leads the chase with the rest following suit, Meis, Gueira, Galo, and Aina all doing their best to keep any employees out of the way or dealing with Sea Force grunts.

They make it back to the engine room as Lucia hacks into it as well, going through the narrow door into the large room. The engine sits in the middle, humming and operating, as Lio navigates around it. Galo notices almost fear in his expression as he moves away from the equipment entirely to a blank wall. He taps, puts his ear to the wall and then moves back to dig his nails into the metal. Meis and Gueira start helping as Ignis asks Lucia what’s behind there. She stumbles, saying nothing should be. There are no maps of the Parnassus showing anything beyond that room, at least, none that she’s seen in the database. Galo moves close to try and stop them till the wall suddenly slides back to a steel door with a scanner and an eye reader.

The team is bewildered, Meis asking Lucia to break this one too but she says it’d take her a bit to crack it. Lio doesn’t have the time, Aina recognizing the sparks as she and Galo evacuate Lucia and Ignis. He grabs the scanner as the room lights up in electricity, the scanner screaming and frying. Lio wobbles as Gueira catches him, keeping him upright and Meis giving words of encouragement to keep steady.

The doors slide open and Lio is sent flying back, sliding over the ground. Galo rushes to his side as Gueira and Meis are soon pinned down by a new squadron of men Galo’s never seen. More pour out as they’re soon surrounded and up from the hidden doorway enters Kray. He’s surprised to see Galo down here, didn’t he order him to his office? Ah, but Fex is here, he knew she was a little rat. Even Ex disobeying orders, tsk, tsk. Galo surely has done quite a mess, dragging all these innocent people along.

Galo asks why he’s down here, what’s the meaning of the secret door as Galo is soon pulled away from Lio. He scrambles to get back, Lio doing the same, fingertips almost brushing but never meeting. Lio sets off another discharge, falling the offender as his sights turn to Kray. Chest heaving, he dashes towards the Captain with Galo pleading Lio to stop just as Kray winds up and delivers another punch to his chest. Lio is down on his knees as Kray picks him up by the throat, heaving him up.

Meis and Gueira are dragged back down into the secret room as Kray tries to figure out where to even start. Insubordination this egregious could not be tolerated with a slap on the wrist; not anymore. It’s not long after that they hear Remi and Varys struggling, lead into the engine room by more elite black ops. Ignis barks that Remi and Varys had nothing to do with this and Kray tells him to cut the bullshit; they’re all working together. After all, they’re all Galo’s little family, aren’t they?

Lio cries out as Kray tightens his hold over his neck, unflinching to the mer clawing up his wrist. Sweating profusely, Lio grits his teeth and starts another charge only to be slammed into the wall by Kray head-first. Galo remembers that exact movement, rage bubbling up as Kray does so again. He screams for him to stop as Kray only does momentarily after he notices Lio is hardly struggling anymore. It’s you, Galo stutters, feeling a sob coming on. He didn’t want to believe it, he wanted so badly to think Lio was lying, but he knows who Kray is.

Kray takes an odd stance, asking what Galo is implying with that. Aina gets it out first, however, yelling he’s a bastard and to not pretend any longer. They know he’s the mer that tried killing Galo that night, they know everything! Lio told them! There’s a pause in the air and then… Kray laughs. It’s a boisterous laugh that sends chills through every person, a laugh Galo has never heard from Kray ever. Lio told them, huh? He shakes his head and realizes now the bewitching this mer has done. What fools they’ve all been.

Ordering the team up, they’re fed one by one down the dimly lit stairs by the black operatives. It’s then that Galo hears something in the uneasy silence. A faint echo that only gets louder. Screams. Horrible, painful screams. They enter out into a control room bathed in blue, and from the windows, they can see hundreds, no, thousands of pods lining the inside. They spin with a blur inside, mers, with the currents all streaming down into a massive tank of wild currents.

Galo is mortified at what he’s seeing when they’re all taken aback by a familiar voice. Heris stands near the controls, bewildered as Aina hesitantly calls her name back, almost afraid.

This is what they’re after, isn’t it? Kray calls back their attention as he holds Lio out to witness it all. Galo can see tears streaming down his face, a look of horror and utter misery plaguing his beautiful features. This is what Lio’s been leading them too.

Kray decides it’s time to tell them what this is. Deus had dreams of inventing a ship that would be powered by the help of the mers. He wanted to establish peace between them, have their species work hand-in-hand with humans in this new world they’ve both been thrust into. As his new apprentice, Kray spent years trying to help the good doctor see that dream come true, but each experiment was a failure. This was one of them, or so Deus thought at the time. After his untimely death, Kray couldn’t look at the mers the same way, he felt anger that couldn’t be contained. The mers had taken their beloved Captain, but he still left his research behind. He was onto something; they couldn’t rely on fossil fuel forever. While other ships would eventually sink when their resources ran out, the Parnassus could keep them afloat for centuries thanks to the mers. It’s clean, efficient, and all they had to do was capture a few to replace the ones that died for the greater good of mankind.

Of course, letting the people know about something like this might frighten or startle them. If he had to play the bad guy to ensure the future of his ship, then so be it. But now that they knew… did they still want to take them all away? That’s what they’re after, right? Free the mers? That’ll damn them to the bottom of the ocean, it’ll collapse the Parnassus. Thousands of innocent lives will perish, all for some fish.

Galo can hardly speak, can hardly think. All while Kray talks they see Meis and Gueira dragged at the bottom of the room into fresh pods, hooked up and soon spun. Lio is gritting his teeth so hard to not cry as Galo feebly speaks. The engine up top. It can—

No. It’s a fake. Kray bluntly states their ship relies solely on the currents the mers generate now. He asks again, tossing Lio to the ground and stomping on his back. The humans or the mers. Galo’s been acting like he’s a fish for a while, it’s time he mans up and realizes what side he belongs to.

Galo struggles as Kray flicks his finger, allowing him to be released. He scrambles over to Lio, who is struggling to stay awake. The poor mer buries his head into Galo’s lap as he sheds a tear, staring up at Kray. He bluntly states that he won’t choose; they can still co-exist in harmony. He can save both of them! They can work together!

Galo feels the front of Kray’s boot smash into his chest as he rolls back over to his friends. Kray calls him a lost cause, that he’s clearly become a terrorist and brainwashed by the mers. He’ll see to it that he never harms this ship just as Lucia speaks up.

She understands now the situation. All of this. He doesn’t care about anyone on this ship, he cares about the _status._ Kray turns back around and strides close as Lucia keeps talking, getting angrier. The rouge mer that murdered Deus and Galo’s parents was him. With Deus out of the way Kray suddenly got everything he wanted. He’s for neither team, he’s only for himself.

Lucia is socked to the ground by Kray, with the rest of the team fighting to break free. He tells Lucia that she’s making some extreme statements as Galo witnesses Lio regaining his ground. He leaps onto Kray’s back, tearing into his uniform and discharging one final round of electricity. He falls to the ground in a pile of limbs as Kray falters. They can all see plain as day his glowing red eyes and slits, closing them as he barks to the men to arrest them all and detain them. Kray was never for execution but the scope of the situation is too grand. They’re all dragged away as Kray turns back to Lio, Galo screaming and sobbing to let him go. Give him back. Kray. _Kray_!!

Each member is thrown into their own metal cell, unable to see or hear the rest but the vibrations of the others banging. Galo is beside himself with a flood of emotions, hardly able to process any of it. He finally breaks down and cries.

Aina doesn’t know how long it is before she hears a loud beep and her door opens. Heris stands beyond the door, letting the guards know they’re not needed and to leave her be. The door is closed behind her as Aina scrambles to her feet, grabbing Heris’ shoulders. What was she doing down there?! Why is she helping with this?! Heris knocks one hand away and asks the same thing. Do you know how scared to death she was seeing all that?! But it’s okay, she managed to speak to Kray and he’s allowed just Aina to skirt past the chopping block if she behaves and doesn’t speak about anything that happened.

Aina is beyond horrified, asking if that’s supposed to make her feel better. Heris takes her shoulders and lightly shakes them, saying this isn’t time for games anymore. Her life is on the line, just do as she says! She can’t stand to lose her just like their own parents! She knows what’s best for them! Aina begins to cry as Heris consoles her, saying they can work this out together. Aina doesn’t understand why her sister can sleep at night saying these things, hurting those mers. Heris doesn’t flinch; she’d do anything for Aina. Even if it meant the deaths of thousands of mers, if it keeps the Parnassus afloat, it if kept Aina alive, she’d continue doing so without thinking twice.

Aina continues to break down as Heris shows her out, noticing the guards still waiting. She tells them that Aina is fine and that they’re leaving. She takes her back to one of the break rooms and asks if she needs any water. Aina sniffles and says a glass would be great, and as Heris moves to do just that she’s suddenly taken off guard. Aina pulls her coat off and pushes her into a nearby closet, Heris falling onto a bucket. She calls for her and to listen to her but Aina tells her to listen. Kray’s been playing them all for fools, don’t tell her she didn’t listen to Lucia. All of this is his fault and the least she can do is stop it. She apologizes, saying they’ll have a heart-to-heart after all this is done and slams the door shut, jamming a nearby broom through the handle. With keycard and lab coat stolen, she throws her hair down and proceeds back to the cells, trying the keycard on most of the doors to no avail.

An operative spots her as she does a sleight of hand to get close and steal one of his keycards, only able to scrape by and get him to leave as he’d never seen Heris before. She uses it on the rest of the doors to get the others out. Galo is greeted to his door being opened with Aina spear-heading the team, saying they’re going to rescue Lio and everyone else.

They gather for a brief second, no one having a plan. Galo is astonished when the rest start talking about evacuation methods, how they need to start deploying life rafts and submarines asap. Galo protests, saying they’re just…okay with giving up the Parnassus? Their home, their lives? Aina bops his nose and tells them of course they’re not! This is all they’ve known… who knows what’ll happen… but they can’t just let this continue on. Like they said, they’ll figure something out, always have.

Lucia states she needs to retrieve her tablet, which Varys agrees to help her with, as Ignis tells Aina and Galo to get to the main engine room and get Lio. They’ll get in touch with them somehow, but right now Lio needs them. They’ll worry about evacuating the ship.

They take off in opposite directions, Aina continuing to use her familiar appearance to bypass a few guards all the way back to the control room. Galo asks how she even got her stuff and Aina shoves him that she doesn’t want to talk about it. They spot Lio down near the pods, where a few guards are dragging the turned-back mer over to a new pod. Galo takes off, despite Aina’s protests, out of the door and down the steps. Soon after alarms start blaring as another door opens with Heris confronting Aina with a few more operatives behind her. Aina is right out with Galo as the room is bathed in red as even higher alarms go off. Lucia is on the intercom, instituting a mass evacuation and to head for the launching bay. Her communication gets cut off mid-way to Kray coming on about a false alarm and to not listen.

Rushing the guards, Galo yells out to Lio just as they’re shoving him into the pod. His eyes snap open just as the door is shut. The guards train their weapons as Galo gets one good sock in before the other fires at his arm. His shoulder is hit, drawing his hand back to blood. Another missed shot comes from the control room, where guards are rushing down the stairs to apprehend them. He can hear Heris screaming from inside about a deal but Kray gives the order to gun them down for the safety of the Parnassus.

The pod soon balloons, bolts snapping as massive tendrils break out and grab the two nearest guards. They’re flung across the room as the tendrils then grab Galo and Aina, pulling them inside once the barrage of bullets fly. Lio saunters out as the bullets die down, depositing Aina and Galo back onto the ground as his form emerges in the small snake, withdrawing inward as a spray of pressurized water fires back. Most of the guards take cover and flee. Galo and Aina get back up as the snake shifts into a puddle, Lio collapsing to the ground. He’s sustained too much damage with not a lot of energy left.

They rush to his side, hoisting him up between them as Galo asks Lio what they should do. God, why can’t they talk to each other?! Lio eyes up to Galo and then to the massive current tank, pointing at it and saying something. Aina repeats the same frustration Galo has as he quiets her, asking Lio to repeat. He remembers that phrase… Into? He tells Aina they have to get Lio inside the engine, a though process that Aina calls him crazy for. Hey, who is Aquaman here? Ugh, you. You’re damn right about that.

The guards regain their formation as Galo and Aina drag Lio across the ground, missing the next barrage while hiding away in the back. There’s a lone valve of water on the side with a locked metal shutter. Galo tries turning the wheel to get it open to no avail. Aina rushes over to use her strength but Galo notices a couple of buckets of water nearby. Just as they hear the guards round the corner the engine freezes, the currents dying out. The entire boat lurches as Lucia’s voice comes back over the intercom. You feel that, you dinguses? Evacuate now!

One of the bottom floor panels opens up near them, Heris poking her head up and crawling out to hug Aina. Oh she’s so dead for this. Aina asks why she’d help them now and Heris states all bets were off the table when Kray left Aina for dead. She’d rather sink the ship if that’s the case. Well, that’s great, because that’s what’s going to happen. Lio speaks up again as Galo is able to roughly translate; actually, hold that thought. Could you rev it up? Like, overload it?

Heris is confused but abides, but only if Aina comes with her. Aina is skeptical but Heris assures her she’s not going to pull that stunt again, pinky promise. Aina turns to Galo, is this goodbye? Galo hears Lio tell them to run after but he holds off, saying no, they’re going to meet back up. He’ll find her and everyone else again after they free the mers.

She holds him to it, saying if he doesn’t come she’s coming after him, and both knock elbows and skulls with tears lining the corners of their eyes. A loud knock and Heris shoves Aina back through the trapdoor, pulling out a revolver she kept on hand. Kray stands right behind Galo, the two squaring off as Kray congratulates them for getting this far. No one has ever sullied his name this badly, but none of them will survive the day. Heris calls him a madman as she shoots her side, saying she’s not needed anymore. Consider this your fire.

Without a moment too soon, Galo snatches one of the buckets and throws it at Kray, the water splashing over his form. He drops the gun and recoils as Aina pulls Heris down with her, the two sharing a very unsure glance before Galo yells at Aina to go. He hesitates for a moment, watching Kray fall to his knees and scream but he focuses back on Lio. He kneels down, knowing what Lio is about to do isn’t going to be pretty. He’s not running through, he’s staying through to the end. There’s a glimmer of hope and love in Lio’s eyes, sharing a kiss as Galo chomps down on his lip, drawing enough blood and wiping away the rest. He stands back up and strains to open the valve again, pushing his muscles to the limit just as the pods start to spin. The screams intensify, Lio covering his ears as Galo knows he’s tearing muscle, finally cracking the shutters up.

Water spills onto the floor as Galo wades into it, feeling his own transformation try to take hold. Together, him and Lio push against the torrent of water, fitting Lio’s head through as his leg his grabbed. He’s pulled down and met with the same eyes on the night of his attack, teeth coming for his throat as he pushes his left arm in the way. The pain is torturous, biting to the bone and trying to tear his appendage off just until Kray recoils from the growing spines. The fighting stops as they watch something enter into the massive tank, a tumbling and disorientated Lio. There’s a real fear that continues to grow the more he sees Lio struggling, accentuated by the demonic laugh from Kray. Then there’s a turning point, Lio maneuvers into the eye of the currents and soon the currents are working around him. An unholy scream gathers the thousands of mers to chime in as the water violently swirls and kicks up that the sides crack and burst. The windows of the pods smash in a shower of glass as the entire engine explodes outward into the form of a massive dragon.

The ship jerks and drops, Galo hitting the ground and rolling down to the wall. He watches in astonishment his love tear into the pods, mers jumping into the tendrils coming off the sides and swimming down to the base. The water is up to Galo’s neck as he feels his slides split and ducks his head underwater. A few mers come by to check him out, curious and grateful. Another powerful blast tears open one of the walls into the black, icy ocean. The mers escape through it as Galo notices a new pillar of water rising. Arms form as he notices Kray in the forming head, slugging the jaw of the dragon and sending it crashing into the control room. Body aching, shoulder beyond abused, Galo swims towards the fight, charging up the mountain of Lio’s beast as violent and fast currents pierce through the formation. He dodges and twirls out of the way for most, watching Lio struggling as the head of the dragon fires a blast of pressurized water as its grabbed and angled upward towards the ceiling. Chunks of metal and infrastructure scatter the sky as Galo swims through massive pieces and gets cut by a few smaller sharp ones. He manages to get to the head as Kray is entering in, bringing with him a sharp wave of currents. Lio puts up a barrier that is smacked into, tumbling away just as Galo intercepts and puts all his training to use. An almost white barrier of speeding currents protects them, jerking back from the impact but holding steady. It gives Lio enough time to summon his own, Galo trading off with a smooth glide while Lio launches his slash, nearly taking Kray’s left arm as it plows through his form and beyond, tearing into the ceiling. Stunned, Kray is helpless as Galo throws his fist up and the blast of currents throws him through the water on a geyser that smacks him into the metal.

Galo is shocked he could even do that, but pumped nonetheless, aside from feeling completely drained. Lio takes his hand, understanding others and the point up. They have to get the others from higher floors. The dragon complies as Lio puts out another pressurized beam, tearing into the ceiling. The engine room is nearly flooded as they take a geyser up into the higher floors, exiting into the aquarium.

A hurried slash from Lio destroys most of the tanks, confused mer soon getting the picture as Lio directs them back down the hole. Galo takes a breather, or, as best as he can in such shallow water when he hears his name. He turns around and notices Ignis running over. He tells him that they have almost everyone at the launching bay and will be departing shortly. Galo simply slaps his tail and wiggles his ears. Ignis eyes his gunshot wound and tears off part of his jacket, patching up Galo and saying they’ll get him looked out once this is all over. That’s an order, Thymos.

Ignis’ walkie talkie soon blows up with the other’s voices on if he’s found Galo as he lets them know he’s alright but will need medical assistance later. They chastise him for being careless like always, and that they’ll be the best nurses and pack extra boo-boo band-aids. His smile is never wider until the water around Ignis collects and scoops him up. Kray exits from the hole with tidal waves aplenty, throwing Lio and Galo. He managed to grab hold of one of the aquariums as Lio continues to tumble and Kray blasts a hole through the ceiling, taking Ignis with him.

Summoning another geyser, Galo shoots right after him, following after his destruction right up to the shopping mall. As he exits he sees Ignis discarded to the side, side bleeding. The next thing Galo feels is a huge slash into his back, tumbling over to where Ignis is as his own blood joins his. Kray, back in his human form, taunts Galo for following, knowing he’d come running for his boss. Kray’s left arm is lined with scales as he raises both hands and the boat tilts even further. The sunlight above the mall gleams as water starts to bubble and spill from the hole. It’ll be fun watching him drown, then he’ll go back and finish off Lio.

Galo slings Ignis over his shoulder, trying to get him away as Kray slaps another wave of water at them, sending them crashing into a store. Galo tries to rise, noticing a few floaties and securing a ducky ring as he fits it over Ignis’ body. He starts waking up as Galo holds his hands to his side, telling him to apply pressure while he wraps his jacket around the wound. Ignis cries to duck his head as a slash tears into the wall.

Galo gets back up, telling him to stay down only to be snatched by the water and tossed back out into the square. The water is rising too fast, already up to his knees as Kray sits atop one of the roofs to the stores, questioning if Galo wonders why he did it. Why he’d kill Deus and his parents.

He doesn’t give him a chance to respond before Galo is thrown into the air, caught by tentacle after tentacle as Kray reminisces. He liked Deus, don’t get him wrong. He knew of the legends of being able to turn human but never had a chance to truly try. And his idea was smart, but he just wouldn’t listen to him about simply burning up the mers for their resources. Deus foolishly thought he could get something to work, and used their friendship as an example of two species working together for the whole.

Kray smiles. Galo sounds just like Deus and it sickens him. He slams Galo back into the water and picks him up without stopping, holding him afloat as he stands back up. After he realized Deus wasn’t going to change, that he was a bad leader, he couldn’t stand by any longer. His parents just happened to come in at the wrong time. But… had they not, Kray wouldn’t have realized one important thing.

He draws Galo close and he notices Ignis’ blood lining his lips. He really does love the taste of humans.

Galo is then slingshot across the mall, launched into a small shop. His vision is blotchy and fading, unable to fight back as Kray rides in. The foundation is torn up as Kray secures it around Galo’s lower half, telling him to stay put. As much as he’d love to tear his face off…hm… you know… he feels like he’s kind of earned it at this point.

Kray then topples forward as Galo sees Ignis floating outside the shop with the ducky inflatable ring. He has one of Sea Force’s tranquilizer guns, scolding him for losing track of the enemy and fires a few more into Kray’s back. This angers him enough to turn back, a wave crashing into Ignis only to recede and crash into the store. By now Galo is fighting to keep his head above the water. Rising from the hole, none other than Lio enters the fray, letting out another enraged cry as Kray laughs. There he is. Time to finish them off both.

Pillars of water skyrocket to the sky, blasting through the glass ceiling, letting the ocean crash through. Kray, laughing like a madman through the chaos, does not see the massive spirals of debris rain down. Galo calls to Kray, only garnering his attention as one of them smashes into the shop, completely sealing the doorway that Kray once stood in.

Galo hears a scream and then only his breathing as darkness surrounds him. The water keeps rising, tilting his chin higher, hyperventilating. He feels vibrations outside the ruined structure, squeezing his eyes shut.

A hand touches his chest and he gasps. Those rosy glowing eyes are just as relieved as he is, feeling the debris pulled off. He latches onto Lio as the water whips through his hair through the running currents. They breach to let Galo get air in a small bubble near the top of the ship, Galo pulling himself onto the ruined piece as he can still only see Lio’s eyes.

He asks if Ignis got out, where Kray is… neither of which he understands from Lio. But they soon feel the ship rattle and come to a stop. The pressure alone in Galo’s ears is enough to know where they are. The last thing he feels is a sickening mixture of relief and dread as he passes out.

The next two weeks, or…was it two weeks… however long he’s down there, rolls by in slow ebbs. Through air pockets, Galo gets to exploring the wrecked Parnassus with Lio by his side, using emergency flashlights and calling out for any others that might be trapped beneath. They did eventually find Kray, or, what was left of him. No sign of Ignis.

With each passing day, Galo and Lio keep to each other, though Galo knows whenever he sleeps Lio leaves to check in with his pack. He’s always there when he wakes up though, napping. They slowly weave the two languages together, knowing that Meis and Gueira have moved the pack to a safer location that’s close enough for the time being until Galo can follow. Galo is stubborn, not until he checks the entire ship for survivors.

Galo keeps the jacket around his wound, even after Lio was successful in digging the bullet out. The wound wasn’t properly healing, but Lio assures him it would when he was just like them. After the ship is thoroughly scrubbed, Galo rests easier at night knowing there weren’t any other casualties. But the air grows thin; some spots are only carbon dioxide now.

It’s on one particular morning, on his last emergency flashlight that Lio swims up and offers him something. He explains that he’d been working on it for a while, made with his own blood. Galo realizes what this is as Lio holds his hands with his, asking if Galo will stay with him. Forever. Galo doesn’t have to think, chuckling and saying yes, but… Lio doesn’t like the but, and Galo doesn’t either, but part of him is going to miss having legs. Seeing the sun… they never did get to swim under the moon. He wonders about his friends all the time and Lio quietly consoles him, knowing he’s hurting. He used to think all land-dwellers were bad but can see Galo knew good souls. He hopes they’re doing fine as well but they can’t focus on that. This is just their reality.

Galo nods, he’s right. He’ll always carry some sadness, hoping they’re okay. But he doesn’t want Lio to think he doesn’t want this, cupping his cheek. Eyeing the stone, he gulps, and just as he’s about to take it Meis pokes his head out of the water. Man fish are nearby.

Galo asks what that is as Lio’s gaze sharpens and tells Galo to stay there. Galo sets the stone down and waits, wondering what kind of fish that would look like. Time draws longer than Galo would like, whining for Lio to come back as the surface breaks.

The first thing he feels is his nose bopped, then the biggest hug as a very familiar voice scolds him for not saying goodbye. Galo pulls the person back, it’s Aina. He breaks into tears as Aina follows suit, telling him she wasn’t going to cry but now you’re crying and ugh, this is so your fault! Galo is fine taking responsibility as both share a tight hug. Aina comments on his growing facial hair once the tears stop but Galo doesn’t care, how did they find him?! How are they down here?!

Uh, the submarines? Lio is poking his head out of the water with a sincere smile as Aina explains once they found the Parnassus Lio came to check out their vessel and well, here she is! She tells Galo he has to come with them right now and see what they found and so both Galo and Lio depart with the submarine. The pack follows loosely behind, keeping a very safe distance as Galo uses Lio’s blood, for the time being, not taking the stone just yet. After several hours of swimming, the vessel surfaces as Galo and Lio stare in awe.

It’s an island. A small one, but they can clearly see the wooden houses and people on the beach. Aina welcomes them to Promepolis as Galo hurries to get on land, tugging Lio along. Once shifted, they feel sand for the first time ever, the sun’s harsh rays and Galo weeps again. It’s then that he hears the others and is swept up into a tight hug by the rest of Ocean Rescue and how thankful they are to have found him. Galo agrees and can’t stop crying, so glad everyone is okay and safe.

They show Lio and Galo around the campsite, small, but doable, and how they found the island after a few days of drifting in the ocean. Thank god too, they were running out of drinkable water. They think it’d be a good idea to stay on the island, Galo agreeing and getting so excited. They’re going to be just like people before the Great Tsunami.

Then Galo feels Lio tighten his hold and Galo sadly smiles. It’s great, he hopes they’ll be happy here. But his place is with Lio now, giving him a reassuring peck on the lips that brightens some of his gloom. He shows the group the bloodstone Lio made for him as they marvel at the deep ruby color.

Aina asks again if this is what Galo really wants and he reassures her. Lucia then butts in; that’s really sweet of him, but why can’t he have both? The rest are lost, Lucia sighing. They aren’t traveling on boat anymore, right? And they’ve been struggling to catch fish in the sea. Why can’t Galo stay with them and be with Lio? He can go off with Lio on his fishy adventures sometimes and sometimes the mers can stay with them and help them learn how to fish.

Galo’s eyes brighten; yeah! They can still bridge the gap! He turns to Lio, who is more hesitant about this plan, knowing his people will be more distrusting of land-dwellers after everything. Galo gets on his knees and lets Lio know he’s fine with whatever he chooses. If this isn’t what he wants, he’ll swallow this stone right now and he can drag him through the sand back to the ocean. Lio laughs, then looks down to the sand sticking to his toes.

He’s always wanted to know what the sun felt like…always was curious about land-dwellers lives before the Great Tsunami. It’d be wrong of him to take him from his world when he hadn’t properly been introduced to his.

Galo’s smile widens; so yes?? Lio smiles, yes. They can stay. A joyous ceremony occurs that night, with a wild bonfire and plenty of fish to feast on. Many volunteer and help the mers onto land, who also party with the humans about what will be a new friendship. It’s decided that every beginning of the month the mers will stay with the humans for a week, then depart back for the waters until the next month comes. 

In the late of night, far after the party is over, Lio and Galo sit down on the beach, hand in hand. Lio remarks he’s never seen Galo smile so much and Galo says yeah, because now he gets to show Lio his world. Like this, gesturing to the moon. They can have this now, can have it for as long as they want.

Lio is just as excited, telling Galo to just wait, he’ll show him stuff that’ll blow his mind. Galo looks forward to it, leaning in and placing the stone between them. There’s a new net string around it as Galo holds out a regular stone put in the same sort of net. Tada! He tried making these himself but really sucked at it, so Aina stepped in to help. Lio asks why he’s being given a stone as Galo huffs. It’s what the stone stands for, and Galo is giving him this because he can’t concentrate his blood into a cool looking rock, so that will have to do.

He ties it around Lio’s neck and puts the bloodstone around his, saying that these will have to do until he can properly propose. They’ll always have a part of each other this way. Lio touches over it, beyond flattered, but asks what he means by proposing. They’re already mates, silly.

Galo sighs and gives up, too tired from partying to translate. Lio is fine with that, calling back to those bygone days when they couldn’t properly speak. They still made it work.

Closing in, the two kiss under the moonlight, ready to start a new life together for both their kinds.

The final scene of the story takes place a year later. Promepolis is growing and thriving, with Ignis having taken over as Mayor of the island. It’s a weird combination of technology and tribalism, with many things salvaged from the Parnassus thanks to the mers without the electricity to keep it running. The mer pack and humans have basically blended together, with some mers staying on land to be with loved ones or some humans deciding to give up their legs. Despite Lio’s argument to rename Promepolis to, “The Fotia pack; land version”, no one really seemed keen with the name.

Aina is lamenting on how hot the summer is and how it wasn’t this bad on the Parnassus, to which Varys laughs and says they had AC back then. Least it's better than the winter. Aina tells him to shut up as she watches the shoreline. Ocean Rescue never went away, their duties as lifeguards and social workers just changed. On said shoreline, the annual surfing competition was underway, with Meis and Gueira commenting on the contestants. Starting off the competition was none other than the power couple themselves, Galo and Lio Fotia-Thymos, both of whom are out riding one of the biggest waves Lio could create without flooding the shoreline. They tease and banter with one another until an unexpected shift causes Lio to wipe out and fall into the wave. Galo laughs but it isn’t long before he’s tackled off his board by Lio, both of whom are swallowed up and deposited onto the beach as mers.

Meis and Gueira recount the two love birds and that the actual competition will be underway shortly while Aina bats them both with towels. This is supposed to get the crowd pumped not make them wet their shorts. Galo can’t stop laughing and tries to speak but Aina tells him to put a sock in it, he knows she can’t hear him.

Dried off, the two bask on the shoreline as Lio keeps the waves coming to let the contestants have their moment. Galo comments that he’s missed the sun and about getting a tan, to which Lio scoffs and dares him to try. This is their last night here, remember? He’s going to take him south to the rainbow reefs. Riiiiight, Galo nods and Lio bluntly asks if he even listened to him when he explained this several months back. Course he did! Galo can guess what they were as Lio sighed.

First off, mers don’t like being cryptic with their speech like humans. So of course Galo knows what it’s going to look like. Second, that reef has been under his territory before he was pack leader, so hardly anyone gets to see it but his people. Third, that’s their mating grounds, _genius_.

Sand flew as Galo sat back up, stating Lio didn’t tell him anything about that and then, with a pause for thought, oh…now he remembers. Lio nodded, Galo had just missed their last mating season before he came aboard the Parnassus, so this year they weren’t missing it. It was in a lovely spot too where you could see the large marble of the moon even from so far down, bathing them in its heavenly light.

Its then that Meis and Gueira, the eavesdropping bastards they are, swagger on over, offended for their boss that Galo forgot something so sacred to their species. You really married an idiot, boss. Hey, Galo snapped back, who was the one that had the crazy idea of mixing human and mer blood to make a bloodstone that let them turn whenever they hit the water or dried off? Gueira asked when Galo was ever going to let that go and he promptly responded with never. He’s a genius, geniuses, so there. Lio married the best. A shower of smooches was given as Lio giggles, conceding. Galo had his moments.

Come nightfall, Galo and Lio are greeted to a surprise banquet held by their friends. All the freshest fruit they could pick, the uh, best vegetables they could grow and lots of grilled fish. Galo asks what’s all this for, they haven’t done anything this huge since he first went out to the ocean. They’re celebrating their one-year anniversary, duh! Congrats to going off to get laid! Galo is beet red as Meis and Gueira join in on the teasing. Lucia throws in that they won’t be the only ones departing this time as all the joyous taunting goes right to Remi. He tells them all to shut up as Galo gives him a pat on the back, it’s still great he found his girlfriend again! He’ll show him the ropes as Remi begs for anything alcoholic so he can forget this night. They don’t have alcohol but they do have lightly flavored fruit water, which they dump over Remi’s head in celebration. Better bring some fishy condoms.

Aina escorts Galo out of the event gazebo to go look at the ocean, reminiscing on the hardships of their first year on the island. They weren’t even sure if they’d make it past winter, but here they were. With the mers keeping the tides low they weren’t any reason to worry about the island being swallowed up like the continents were. She asks if he’s a little nervous about this and Galo says just a bit, but Lio seems ecstatic to teach him all the courtship dances. 14 moon cycles, damn, he doesn’t know if he can put out that much. Aina boisterously laughs thinking of him and Remi trying to do the shimmy shammy and gets Galo to start laughing too. She admits that she tries not to get sad whenever he leaves, but it’s hard. Now Remi’s going with them and like, she’s super happy he got back together with his girlfriend but you know…it’s kind of lonely without them.

Galo turns to Aina and asks her to come with… okay, not _now_ , obviously not now. That’d be the biggest douche bag thing to ask. But seriously, come with them one month. The stories he’s told about finding sunken ships and old civilizations of pasts, the monuments of the ocean. Sure, hearing about them is awesome, but experiencing them firsthand was incredible. Aina sighs, saying Heris would flip if she just disappeared, but…maybe someday. With a light punch to his arm, Aina says he better not treat her like a third wheel if she does, and Galo chuckles and says he’ll give her the grand tour of the ocean.

Their moment is interrupted as Remi marches out of the party with a pineapple over his head, throwing it off and saying he’s getting a head start. Lucia and Varys run after him and tackle him into the sand as Galo feels Lio come to his side. They’re getting ready to depart. Galo nods and flicks Aina on the nose. Later, land-dweller loser! Sayonara, fish-butt! They both blow raspberries as Lio guides him to the shore, commenting that he looks like he had a fun night.

They shed their clothes together and drop them off in their house, heading for the water together with hundreds of heads poking out of the water. Galo says he always has a great time coming inland, he misses his friends, and Lio says he won’t be missing them for long from what he has in store. With a hard slap on the rear, Galo falters enough that Lio gets a head start, Galo chasing after his giggling husband back to the ocean for their honeymoon.


End file.
